Huntelaar agrees Real Madrid move

Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has agreed a £17m January transfer window move to Real Madrid.

The Ajax striker, 25, who will be the sixth Dutch player at the Bernabeu, will sign a contract until 2013.

A number of Premier League clubs including Arsenal and Manchester United were thought to be tracking Huntelaar.

The Netherlands international will be seen as a replacement for Ruud van Nistelrooy, who will be out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.

As Ajax have only played in the Uefa Cup, he would be eligible to appear for Real in the Champions League. He top scored in the Dutch First Division with 33 goals in 34 games last season but is currently out of action with an ankle injury.

Ajax coach Marco van Basten said: "I grant Klaas-Jan this transfer, though we preferred to finish this season with him."

Real already have five Dutch players on their books in Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Rafael van der Vaart and Royston Drenthe.

They have eight first-team squad members injured and have slipped to fourth place in the Spanish League, six points behind leaders Barcelona.

Buffon: Juventus Can Win The Champions League This Season

With the Scudetto always getting out of reach, the goalkeeper and his side are focusing on European glory...

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon believes his side are better set up to win the Champions League rather than the Scudetto.

The Bianconeri have always stated their ambitions in Europe this season and everyone at the club have revealed their preferences for glory in Europe.

Alessandro Del Piero recently spoke of a double this term. However, the goalkeeper would rather sacrifice the tricolore to lift the European Cup after twelve years.

"I think that Juventus are better set up to do well in the Champions League," he explained. "We are not inferior to anyone in the cup competition either.

"It's different in Serie A, Inter are running away but we will not give up. Our bad period is behind us. We have to keep running until the spring then we will start the final sprint."

The Goalkeeper then revealed how he was close to joining Scudetto rivals Milan when he was a teenager.

"I wanted to go to Milan when I was young but my family pushed me towards Parma," concluded the shot-stopper.

Del Piero Enjoying His Record Breaking Goal Run

The Juventus man is smashing records week in week out and he insists he will not be stopping...

uventus striker Alessandro Del Piero insists he will not stop breaking records after bagging his 250th goal for the club last weekend.

The hit-man is the clubs all-time appearance and goals record holder but he is showing no sign of stopping as he looks ahead to making more history.

"I will not get used to these statistics. Every record is always an emotion," Del Piero told his official website.

"250 goals are plenty for a striker and they are all important but the team and results come first. I remember everyone of them but I can't choose the best one.

"I would like to thank everyone for their support over the years. I am happy but we cannot stop here. I am convinced that the best goal and result will always come tomorrow."

Del Piero is a 'Bandiera' player and he has been flying the flag since 1993 when he joined Juve from Padova.

A legend in his own right, the striker will be hoping to make it 251 goals against Lecce this weekend.

Juventus hope for swift Camoranesi return

Juventus hope to have Mauro Camoranesi back in action before Christmas as the collarbone injury the winger suffered on Saturday is not as serious as initially feared.

'Not serious'
The 32-year-old opened the scoring against Reggina Calcio before falling badly when attempting a header, forcing him off at half-time. Camoranesi underwent scans today, the results of which left the Bianconeri optimistic. "It all depends on the pain he suffers, but the dislocation is not serious and there's a chance that we could have him back before Christmas," read a club statement. The midfield player, who was sidelined by a thigh injury earlier this season and has started just four Serie A games, will sit out the visit of FC BATE Borisov on 10 December when Juve will be confident of recording the point they need to win UEFA Champions League Group H.

Sneijder, Pepe and Torres add to Madrid woes

Real Madrid CF coach Bernd Schuster endured more miserable news today when it was confirmed that Netherlands midfielder Wesley Sneijder and defenders Pepe and Miguel Torres all face spells on the sidelines after suffering injuries in Saturday's 3-1 defeat by Getafe CF.

Injured trio
The 24-year-old Sneijder pulled up clutching his right thigh in the 16th minute of the weekend loss, which led to the champions dropping a place to fourth in the Liga, and will need ten days to recover from what has turned out to be a hamstring strain. Torres, 22, was forced off with a thigh problem and the Spanish Under-21 international is out for three weeks while Portuguese defender Pepe, who completed the Getafe game, suffered a muscle strain and faces a similar absence though could be missing for a month.

Regulars missing
Madrid are at home to the team directly below them, Sevilla, on Sunday before completing their UEFA Champions League Group H campaign against Zenit at the Santiago Bernabéu three days later. Schuster will be without seven other first-team regulars for those games, including Ruud van Nistelrooy and Fabio Cannavaro, although Madrid's place in the draw for first knockout round on Friday 19 December is already assured.

Ronaldo 'destined for greatness'

Aurélio Pereira could excuse himself a wry smile after reading reports that Real Madrid CF were allegedly ready to pay Manchester United FC €80m for Cristiano Ronaldo. The Sporting Clube de Portugal chief scout was himself once involved in a transfer for the young winger.

'Good deal'
"Sporting were owed money by CD Nacional after they signed a player from Odivelas FC who had played for a Sporting youth team," Pereira told uefa.com. "The amount was around €25,000 and Nacional proposed paying the debt with an eleven-year-old named Cristiano Ronaldo. Our scout in Madeira approved the deal and I agreed after watching the player in Lisbon during a trial. I soon realised it was a good deal for us despite the accountants calling me crazy. What he is doing today doesn't surprise me at all. I know I'm not a magician in discovering players like Ronaldo, but experience told me he was destined to be great."

Past stars
Pereira has been a coach in Sporting's vaunted youth academy for 37 years and has helped some of Portugal's finest players take their first steps up the footballing ladder. Luís Figo and Paulo Futre were the best of their generations. The 23-year-old Ronaldo, who this week became the third Portuguese player after Figo (2000) and Eusébio (1965) to win the Ballon d'Or, is poised to surpass them. "Figo developed his talent thanks to his strong character and serious commitment. He turned out to be a fantastic player, but Ronaldo was a little different. He's the kind of player who always wants the ball. Even when the coach was speaking he wouldn't stop for a minute."

Threat
Time has done little to change that. Supremely confident, nothing it seems was likely to stop Ronaldo's march to the top. Even when things have gone against him, he has returned stronger. He put his penalty miss against FC Barcelona in the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League last season behind him by scoring in the final. Following his altercation with Wayne Rooney in the quarter-finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he returned to England and met his critics head on. Recalling his first impressions of of the winger, it comes as no surprise to Pereira to watch Ronaldo grow in strength from each challenge.

Precocious maturity'
"Besides all the individual skills, he showed certain mental qualities I wasn't used to seeing in eleven-year-old boys," Pereira recalls. "He played against older players and even when he was under pressure, he was the one telling the others to take it easy. Ronaldo showed a precocious maturity." He has also shown a "pure talent", says Pereira, something he was encouraged to express from an early age. "We have a rule at Sporting that we give players the room they need to be creative. We don't interfere or restrain them from doing what they like on the pitch. The players, though, must have the discipline to see the difference between pure individual play and individual play for the benefit of the team." With every twist, turn and shot, Pereira still sees the child who caught his eye all those years ago. "When I watch him play, it's as if I'm looking at the boy at Sporting's academy."

Ronaldo scoops best player award

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the prestigious Ballon d'Or trophy awarded by France Football magazine.

Ronaldo scored 42 goals as Manchester United won the Champions League and Premier League last season.

"It is one of the most beautiful days of my life, something I dreamed of as a child," said the 23-year-old winger.

Barcelona's Lionel Messi was second and Liverpool's Fernando Torres was third while Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard were also in the running.

Ac Milan's Brazilian midfielder Kaka won the award last year.
Where the votes went

Ronaldo's defining role in United's Double-winning season saw 77 of the 96 journalists on the Ballon D'Or panel vote for him as their number one player of the year.

"Great emotion fills me but I cannot really describe it," Ronaldo continued.

"I was not worried, because I was aware of what I did in the course of the season.

"But to the people who mentioned my name, I say thank you. Thank you also to my team-mates.

"This (trophy) is one that I want to win again because it is so good.

"Therefore, I will wake and I will say to myself 'I want to be even better'."

The Portuguese international became only the fifth player to score more than 30 goals in a Premier League season as United pipped Chelsea to the domestic title.

Ronaldo's tally of 42 goals earned him the Golden Shoe as Europe's top scorer, making him the first winger to collect that honour.

And his 42nd strike of an astonishing season came in Moscow as United drew 1-1 draw with Chelsea in the Champions League final. He went on to miss his spot-kick in the resulting penalty shoot-out but United still triumphed.

The only real disappointment for Ronaldo came at Euro 2008.

The winger was expected to be one of the stars of the tournament but he struggled to lift his side and Portugal went out in the quarter-finals.

A summer of fevered speculation over Ronaldo's future followed after he conceded a dream move would be a switch to Spanish giants Real Madrid

But United dug their heels in and in October Ronaldo pledged his future to the Old Trafford club.

Torres, meanwhile, enjoyed a phenomenal debut season in the Premier League following his big-money move from Atletico Madrid.

The 24-year-old scored 24 goals for Liverpool, the highest by a foreign player in their maiden season, and went on to score the winner for Spain in the Euro 2008 final.