Crazy offer

Barcelona will make Cristiano Ronaldo the world’s highest-paid player if he joins them in the summer, thanks to an influx of Arab oil money. According to The News of the World, the European champions will launch a £30 million bid for the Manchester United and Portugal winger and offer him wages of £160,000 a week.

The money will come from Sheik Al-Balawi, the owner of Saudi club Al-Ittihad, who has forged strong links with Barcelona president Joan Laporta through a series of football academies in the middle east. Al-Balawi told the paper: "I will do whatever it takes to help Barcelona sign a great player, like Cristiano."

It expected that Ronaldo's agent will demand that Manchester United match Barcelona's offer if they want to keep hold of the 22-year-old player beyond July, despite him being contracted to the club for another four and a half years.

His current employers offered to double his wages to £100,000 a week two months ago to stave off interest from Barcelona and their bitter rivals Real Madrid. But nothing has yet been agreed, and Ronaldo added his own voice to the debate over whether he will stay or go recently.

Ronaldo said: "I like Spanish football and it interests me, but if anyone wants to speak to me from Spain, they go through my agent, not me."

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