Zidane Agrees �48m Real Move
Wednesday 4th July 2001
Zinedine Zidane will be unveiled as a Real Madrid player within ten days, an official of the Spanish champions stated on Wednesday night. The France playmaker is poised to leave Juventus for a world-record-shattering fee of around �48 million.
Directors of the two clubs thrashed out the agreement on Wednesday. Zidane, who is on holiday in Tahiti, will not sign for another week, but both parties are convinced there will be no last-minute hitches.
Real general manager Jorge Valdano confirmed: "It's all okay, the only thing to work out is how to pay for Zidane. Next week we will finalise everything."
Bernabeu spokesman Fernando Martin declared: "It is 99.9 per cent certain that Zidane will play for us next season. We will introduce him to our supporters before July 15. We have no problems paying this money for a champion like Zidane."
Several player exchanges were mooted at the meeting, which took place at the Agnelli family's Villa Lamandria in Turin. Real offered to pay �22.2 million and give Juventus Flavio Conceicao. But the Serie A runners-up wanted to receive �37 million plus Ivan Helguera and Claude Makelele. In the end, a straight purchase was agreed.
The next problem for Real is how to pay for the Marseille-born star. Real agreed to hand over a preliminary payment of �25.9 million, which was the sum they received for selling their Cuidad Sportiva training complex to the Madrid council.
Although Juventus wanted only one payment, they may have no choice but to agree to Real's request to receive the money in four separate amounts spread over a four-year period.
On Wednesday afternoon, an anonymous Real director told L'Equipe's web-site that the deal was "a matter of hours" away. "The figure being asked is exactly �47.6 million," he said. "Negotiations are almost complete. I think it will be sorted out by this evening.
"It was Zidane who initiated it by declaring that he wanted to leave Juventus. We told him that our goal this summer was to bring him to the club. The moment we found out he wanted to join us, money was never going to be the most important factor.
"We are seeing if we can bring Flavio Conceicao back into the deal. For the Madrid public, it would be amazing to have the four best players in the world. We hope to make an announcement tonight. I hope so in any case," he added.
Zidane, who claimed last month "if it was up to me, I'd already be at Real Madrid", joins Filippo Inzaghi as the second international star to leave Juventus in a matter of days.
Gianluigi Buffon and Lilian Thuram have come in from Parma for a combined fee of over �50 million, while Christian Vieri is expected to join from Inter, and the Delle Alpi club evidently need to balance the books.
The Zidane deal would be another stunning coup for Real president Florentino Perez, whose first move following his election last summer was to prise Luis Figo from bitter rivals Barcelona.
Despite constant denials from Juve chiefs about Zidane's departure, Perez has always insisted he would do "everything possible" to land the twice Fifa Player of the Year.
