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During this interminable summer transfer saga that is Cristiano Ronaldo, it has at times seemed like Real Madrid were putting everything on hold, waiting for him to either arrive or decide to stay at Manchester United. Whether because there's just over a month left of the transfer window, or because Real know that there's a good chance they won't be getting the Portuguese winger this summer, it now looks like Mijatovic has decided to make his first move in the market (if you don't count Garay, back in May). The target is Netherlands midfielder and Hamburg captain Rafael van der Vaart.
The 25-year-old Dutchman, who has a Spanish mother, joined Hamburg from Ajax in 2005 for €5.5 million as midfield playmaker and has since been given the captaincy of their squad. He was instrumental in Hamburg's performance in last season's Bundesliga and has been linked with a number of clubs even before the summer transfer window, among them Chelsea, Inter, Valencia, as well as Real Madrid. Though he signed a 5-year deal with Hamburg, his contract terms state that from the end of the upcoming season, he can leave the club for a "mere" €1 million, hence the upsurge in interest in his services.
The German club's website noted in a brief announcement yesterday evening that they had received and rejected an offer from Real Madrid, as "unworthy of discussion". The value of the offer was then disclosed in German newspaper Die Welt as €6 million, coming in the form of a fax sent to Hamburg Thursday evening by Real Madrid sports director Predrag Mijatovic.
Van der Vaart could potentially be seen as a medium-term replacement for Guti, as he has played alongside Sneijder in that position both at Ajax and in the Dutch national side. The Real Madrid vice-captain, though indisputably talented, suffers from erratic form (and questionable temper) and has finished many of his 14 seasons at the club as a substitute. Nonetheless, he had a pretty regular season under Schuster last year and back in April signed a 'life contract', which saw his previous deal extended until 2011 with an annual renewal clause if he plays 30 games every season.
Hamburg's outright rejection of the offer is seen as a first step in the negotiations between both clubs, who are expected to revisit the matter when they meet in London for the Emirates Cup at the beginning of August.
Friday, 25 July 2008
Mijatovic makes a move
Friday, 30 May 2008
Holiday season - for some
Thursday saw the last training session of the season for the Real Madrid squad members not already with their national teams. A total of seven first team players (Raúl, Michel Salgado, Saviola, Balboa, Soldado, Codina, and Miguel Torres) said their goodbyes (Guti, with special permission from the club, did so the previous day) and will reconvene on July 14th to spend a week in the Portuguese Algarve.
The following week, the squad will fly to the Austrian town of Irdning for preseason training before moving onto London on August 1st to take part in the Emirates Cup trophy. There they willface the hosts, Arsenal, as well as German side Hamburg. They will then move onto Colombia to play against Independiente de Santa Fé on the 7th, nipping back to Frankfurt to play Eintracht on the 12th.
The rest of the preseason is yet to be defined, although Real Madrid will have to take on Valencia for the Spanish Supercup before the start of the new season. The final friendly of the preseason will be the Santiago Bernabéu trophy scheduled for August 27th against Sporting Portugal.
Some members of the squad will get less holiday time as they are involved in games with their national sides over the summer: Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Metzelder, Robben, Sneijder and Van Nistelrooy are involved in the Euro 2008 championship; other players with international commitments are:
