From The Guardian:
Paris St-Germain have been left seething at confirmation that Sir Alex Ferguson made a personal visit to the Brazil team hotel last week in his attempt to persuade Ronaldinho to shun La Liga in favour of a move to Old Trafford.
The United manager broke off from his holiday in the south of France on Thursday morning to meet the Brazilian forward in Paris before Carlos Alberto Parreira's side travelled here for the Confederations Cup game against the United States on Saturday.
The PSG president Francis Graille had refused to meet with the United chief executive Peter Kenyon earlier this month with his club's official stance remaining that the 23-year-old Brazilian is not for sale. Ferguson's meeting technically constitutes an illegal approach similar to those which so enraged PSV Eindhoven prior to United's purchase of Jaap Stam and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Paris St-Germain have been left seething at confirmation that Sir Alex Ferguson made a personal visit to the Brazil team hotel last week in his attempt to persuade Ronaldinho to shun La Liga in favour of a move to Old Trafford.
The United manager broke off from his holiday in the south of France on Thursday morning to meet the Brazilian forward in Paris before Carlos Alberto Parreira's side travelled here for the Confederations Cup game against the United States on Saturday.
The PSG president Francis Graille had refused to meet with the United chief executive Peter Kenyon earlier this month with his club's official stance remaining that the 23-year-old Brazilian is not for sale. Ferguson's meeting technically constitutes an illegal approach similar to those which so enraged PSV Eindhoven prior to United's purchase of Jaap Stam and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Graille is due to meet his Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez here today, with a further meeting due with the Barcelona vice-president Sandro Rosell and another Catalan official Txiki Beguiristain within days to discuss Ronaldinho's future. These talks were arranged up front and amicably with PSG, who are privately furious by what they perceive as an underhand approach by Ferguson.
That is unlikely to smooth the Brazilian's potential sale to the Premiership champions, with PSG remaining convinced that they can secure a larger transfer fee from Barcelona or Real anyway.
Ronaldinho is believed to favour a move to Spain, or perhaps Serie A where Juventus retain a watching brief, rather than England. Barcelona are in pole position after Rosell and Beguiristain spent the weekend with Ronaldinho's brother and agent Roberto Assis, taking in Brazil's 1-0 success over the US along the way.
Planet football quote Barca vice-president Sandro Rossel who says:
"We want Ronaldinho but our offer is lower than Manchester United and Real Madrid, who have both offered 20 million euros (?13.9million), and we are not going to enter into a fight between them," said Rossel.
"Paris St-Germain now have new owners as well who want to keep the player, which makes it more difficult."