I Will Decide Next Week Whether I Stay or Go, Says Unsteady Ronaldo

There is only one thing that can ruin Sir Alex Ferguson's summer now, and it is the sight of Cristiano Ronaldo in a Real Madrid shirt. "I do" was the front-page headline in Marca on the morning of the Champions League final, complete with a photograph of a smiling Ronaldo, and Manchester United's supporters are likely to be disappointed today, and more than a bit perplexed, when they learn about his latest prevaricating over his future.

Carlos Queiroz, Ferguson's assistant and a former Real Madrid manager, revealed yesterday that he had spoken to Ronaldo, warning him that Madrid were the "wrong club", but the player seems less certain, repeatedly changing his story during several contradictory interviews.

In the first instance he insisted his future was at Old Trafford - "I want to stay" - but by the time he had reached another group of reporters, some from Spain, his tone had changed. The questions inevitably turned to whether he was, as suspected, interested in joining Madrid and, specifically, when he would make up his mind. "Not this week," he replied, choosing his words carefully. "I will know the following week. Two weeks."

He did not elaborate, smiling and shrugging when pressed, but he was visibly put out when an English reporter asked him why he "kept doing this" and why he seemed unwilling to offer concrete assurances. There was a long pause, then he replied: "I never promise anything. I don't promise anything to my mum and I don't promise anything to the Manchester supporters. I want to stay, I want to stay, but the future ... no one knows."

His timing was poor, to say the least, and his motives will mystify many. One school of thought is that he is trying to put pressure on United to offer him a contract that would establish him as the best-paid player in the Premier League. His current one, however, was signed only last season and has four years to run, and the club's chief executive, David Gill, recently took the unusual step of publicly stating that there were no plans to improve those terms.

Others at Old Trafford believe Ronaldo, an undisputed show-off, is merely playing games and takes a strange enjoyment out of seeing his future played out on the back pages. Madrid, however, will take any sign of encouragement. "Today's players play where they want," the president, Ramón Calderón, said last night. "If a player decides to leave he is unstoppable. Slavery was abolished a long time ago; nobody can prevent a player from moving. If the player is firm in his decision there is no one who can hold him back. I have always said that if Manchester want to sell him we will ask about him, and if he wants to come we can pay what they ask." Real's coach, Bernd Schuster, said: "Sooner or later, Cristiano Ronaldo will wear the white shirt. I hope that it is when I am still at the club."

What is bizarre is that nobody at United, where the regulations about interviews are notoriously strict, seems to have asked, or instructed, Ronaldo to stop flirting with a club about whom Queiroz, for one, has little good to report. "Real Madrid is not Manchester United," he said. "There are times there when you don't even know who is in charge, whether it is the press or the club. It is not like England or other countries where the institutions are independent. In Manchester everyone works in the same direction; in Madrid it is not like that.

"Cristiano and I have talked about this. You have to remember, this speculation about his future is coming from the right arm of Real Madrid, certain newspapers that we know all about."

Ronaldo has a strong relationship with Queiroz and it may work to United's advantage that Ferguson's right-hand man has committed his own future to Old Trafford. "Ronaldo knows we are the best club for him," said Queiroz. "He has made a fantastic development in the last five years. At 23 he is still young and he has a lot of things still to achieve at our club."

Mixed messages

May 1 'It is hard to live in Manchester but it is a great club and I am very happy here'

May 13 'I'm at the right club, playing with the right players'

May 15 'I have said a million times I'd love to play in Spain. I feel happy here, but let's see what happens after the Champions League final'

May 17 'Will I be here next season?

I think so, but you never know what might happen in the future'