Hamburg, July 2 (DPA) France star Franck Ribery is set to leave Bayern Munich, but only for Real Madrid.
“It is decided. I want to leave,” French sports daily L’Equipe Thursday quoted Ribery as saying. “Yes, it will be Real or nothing.”
Real have been after Ribery for weeks as part of a pan-European spending spree under new president Florentino Perez.
The Spanish giants have spent more than 200 million (282 million dollars) euros on the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema.
According to the AS sports daily, Real could be ready to splash out another 100 million euros as they challenge historic rivals Barcelona on the domestic and international front.
Bayern insist that Ribery is not for sale as he has a contract until 2011. General manager Uli Hoeness Wednesday compared Real’s haggling for Ribery to a game of Monopoly in which Real wanted to dictate the rules.
Hoeness was also firm towards L’Equipe: “Frank wants to go to Real? For us, it changes absolutely nothing. Life is not always a fairy tale … We do not need their money.”
New Bayern coach Louis van Gaal also sees Ribery as a key member of a team set to challenge for the Bundesliga title and for European honours as well, with the last Champions League success dating back to 2001.
“I want to train the world’s best players and Ribery as part of them,” said the Dutchman van Gaal.
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