If your first reaction on hearing about the Samuel Eto’o-Zlatan Ibrahimovic deal was “How much?” then I can assure you you weren’t the only one.

To land Ibrahimovic, who is due to be presented this evening at the Nou Camp, Barcelona will not only hand over the Cameroon international striker but will also give Inter Milan a reported 45 million euros and the loan, for one season, of Aleksandr Hleb.

According to Marca, who are not exactly fans of Barcelona it must be said, that makes the total cost of the Swedish striker at least 87.5 million euros (with Eto’o valued at 35 million, and Hleb for a season at 7.5).

So how on earth is Ibrahimovic worth close to 90 million euros? How on earth is he valued at double Eto’o, one of the world’s top strikers?

Ibrahimovic is the sort of striker coaches love. Tall and strong, he is happy playing with his back to goal and therefore gives the team a target man. He scores goals too, of course, and he has contributed to six league title-winning campaigns with Ajax and Inter.

But Eto’o is no mean player himself. The Cameroon international is also strong but relies more on his skill and explosive pace to get past defences. After signing for Barcelona in 2004 he proved to be the missing piece in the puzzle, joining forces with Ronaldinho to get the team back to title-winning ways.

Eto’o scored not only in the 2006 Champions League final win over Arsenal, but also in this year’s victory over Manchester United and he will leave Barcelona with a record of 130 goals in five seasons.

I think it goes without saying that Ibrahimovic is not really worth 40-45 million euros more than Eto’o, so it looks like yet another case of Barcelona letting a player go at far less than their market value, and for reasons other than simply their value to the team.

It happened with Schuster, Stoichkov, Romario, Kluivert, Rivaldo and Riquelme and now coach Pep Guardiola says he’s happy for Eto’o to go for no reason other than a “feeling”, even thought they’re getting next to nothing for him.

Why is it so many big names seem to leave Barcelona in such circumstances? Why have they never mastered the art of selling?

And looking to the future, can you see Ibrahimovic living up to the inflated price tag the Spanish press have put on him?

PHOTO: Barcelona’s new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Sweden poses in front of a FC Barcelona sign at the team headquarters in Barcelona, July 26, 2009. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

Click the video above for a look at how Shamrock Rovers are preparing for the visit of Real Madrid — a match the entire soccer word will be keeping an eye on, with Cristiano Ronaldo set to make his debut for the Spanish club.

Interesting line about Real’s continued interest in Franck Ribery. Do they really need him still. Raul seems to suggest they’d still like him…

Manchester City are finally shopping at the luxury end of the market, as befits their status as the richest of the rich, and as a result the fans can start to get excited about the new season.

Back in January I blogged about the depressingly familiar rollcall of mediocre players being linked with City: the likes of Scott Parker, Roque Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy and Matthew Upson.

I suggested they aim a bit higher and sure enough they went in at the nosebleed end of things with a bid for Kaka. As we all know, it didn’t come off, and no one of that quality came in in January, but with the arrival of Carlos Tevez (and to a lesser extent Gareth Barry, who was wanted so badly by Liverpool) things have changed.

Now Tevez is there, I’d expect more big names to follow. Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor may be among them, and there’s still an outside chance that John Terry could fellow.

Whether those moves come off or not, things are already looking up for City fans. The arrival of Tevez means they are players at last. Watch out Real Madrid!

PHOTO: Argentina’s striker Carlos Tevez smiles as he leaves after a training session at the squad’s camp on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, June 4, 2009. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Watching Cristiano Ronaldo getting the rock star treatment at a packed Bernabeu stadium on Monday night, I found myself thinking back to the U2 concert I had been to at Barcelona’s Camp Nou last week.

At a record $130 million, the Portuguese winger has cost Real considerably more than the Irish band’s entire world tour, which kicked off in the Catalan capital and is reported to be their most expensive to date at an estimated $100 million.

Industry publications believe the 360 tour could earn Bono & co. as much as $400 million, while Real president Florentino Perez is banking on Ronaldo and fellow new signing Kaka shifting enough shirts and other merchandise to maintain the club’s place at the top of the rich list.

He also hopes to use his new signings as bargaining chips to help him negotiate lucrative contracts for marketing and audiovisual rights.

Bono donned a Barcelona shirt midway through last week’s concert and praised the club for being the only one to carry the Unicef logo.

But at the Bernabeu on Monday it was all about showing off the most expensive and glamorous player in the world, reportedly on an annual net wage of 13 million euros.

“I have always said that if a club wants the best players it has to pay,” a beaming Ronaldo told reporters at a post-presentation news conference. “I am happy to be the world’s most valuable player and I feel proud.”

Perez the showman has successfully stolen the headlines from arch rivals and last season’s treble-winners Barcelona in recent weeks. (more…)

While new Real Madrid signing Cristiano Ronaldo was being presented in front of a packed and excited Bernabeu, another great European club was dealing with an influx of fans but for a very different reason.

Hundreds of AC Milan ultras turned up at the first day of pre-season training to protest against the sale of Kaka to Real and the lack of major signings to replace him and Paolo Maldini (whose heir as skipper is Massimo Ambrosini…)

They chanted slogans and unfurled banners calling on owner and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to put his hands in his pockets, one placard even ordered him to sell the club.

Milan hit back by pointing out they have been the most successful club in world football during Berlusconi’s 23-year reign. They said Madrid’s spending in the last month is a freak occurrence which no other club would be able to sustain in current times.

Season ticket sales at Milan have dropped 20 percent for next season given Kaka and David Beckham (for now) have gone, Ronaldinho is nowhere near the player he was and only promising youngsters and Brazilian defender Thiago Silva have been brought in.

Can Milan, third in Serie A last term, really compete this season at home and abroad or will Berlusconi come under even more pressure?

Or are the fans being a little bit harsh on Milan and will Florentino Perez’s new gamble at Real really work?

VIDEO: Ronaldo’s arrival at Madrid

France striker Karim Benzema is joining Real Madrid from Olympique Lyon, the Ligue 1 club said on Wednesday on their website.

The 21-year-old Benzema will become Real’s third major signing under returning president Florentino Perez after Brazil’s Kaka and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

When Perez was first in charge at the Bernabeu he set about signing one Galactico each close season. Now he is trying to buy them all in a month.

Where is he getting the money from during this global economic crisis? Furthermore, what damage is the spending spree doing to other clubs?

Manchester United were reportedly interested in Benzema to try to boost their forward line after Ronaldo’s departure.

We really are in unchartered territory here. Will Real still pursue Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery too?

Last time the Galactico plan did not actually bring trophies. A few defenders might help this time.

PHOTO: Olympique Lyon’s Karim Benzema reacts after their loss to Girondins Bordeaux in the French Ligue 1 soccer match at the Chaban Delmas stadium in Bordeaux, southwestern France, April 19, 2009. REUTERS/Olivier Pon

Finally, Real Madrid can say that Cristiano Ronaldo is their player after the club reached agreement with the Portuguese over personal terms (which are presumably pretty generous).

The announcement is there on the Real website, with the news that Ronaldo will be presented at the Bernabeu on July 6. Expect an announcement with the razzmatazz to rival the Beckham presentation…

So Real have got their man, and Manchester United have their 80 million pounds. Will he, and Kaka, be enough to make Real Champions League players once again? And how should United spend that money? They’re going to need inspiration from somewhere…

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo leaves Lisbon airport June 5, 2009. REUTERS/Hugo Correia

Cristiano Ronaldo's obsession with scoring an unforgettable goal in the Champions League final makes perfect sense now the world knows he always intended to leave Manchester United afterwards for Real Madrid.

Reaction in England to his departure was captured in a Guardian headline: "United fans will miss outrageous talent but not a charmless man". Ronaldo, it was said, possessed sumptuous talent coupled with obnoxious self-regard.

What, in the end, will Ronaldo be remembered for? His artistry as a footballer or his perceived failings as a man?

John Updike, who died this year aged 76, gives a clue.

A prodigiously prolific novelist, short story writer, playwright, literary critic, art critic and poet, Updike also produced one classic piece of sports writing entitled "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu". It is a wonderful account of Ted Williams's last game at Fenway Park in 1960, which turned out to be the great slugger's last game anywhere.

Updike cuts to the essence of all great athletes.

"He radiated, from afar, the hard blue glow of high purpose... For me, Williams is the classic ballplayer of the game on a hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill."

Baseball, says Updike, and by extension any sport, is maintained "...not by the occasional heroics that sportswriters feed upon but by players who always care; who care, that is to say, about themselves and their art."

Williams's craftsmanship and rigour appealed to Updike's puritan soul. His achievements, like Williams's, depending on unsparing daily endeavour.

There was, though, a contradiction between Williams the athlete and Williams the man. He was, the sportswriter Roger Kahn said bluntly, "not a man to match the deed but an egocentric emotionalist who seems most of all to need a spanking".

Updike did not avoid the controversies which dogged Williams's career. He just didn't think they mattered. Kahn cared no more than Updike about the personal foibles of Williams or of any other ballplayer. "They are all players in a drama larger than themselves," Kahn wrote. "There is a classic tragedy within major league
baseball that catches and manipulates the life of every athlete as surely as forces beyond the heaths manipulated Hardy's simple Wessex folk into creatures of imposing stature."

Art, not the artist, is what matters in the end. Lord Byron, as a recent biography by Edna O'Brien confirms, was a moral monster. Pablo Picasso, Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra were deeply flawed. Their poetry, pictures, films and music will endure, regardless.

So, too, will the memories of Ronaldo's mesmerising feats at Old Trafford when the narcissism and petulance we read so much about last week have been long forgotten.

In which Owen Wyatt and Kevin Fylan discuss the merits or otherwise of Cristiano Ronaldo’s impending move from Manchester United to Real Madrid.

Real have got the best player in the world, arguably, but have they got a bargain, or come to that a sustainable business model? And just who is the new Claude Makelele…?

We welcome comments below, and if you’re feeling more adventurous please feel free to leave your own video response. Upload it somewhere, send us a link and if we like it we’ll showcase it here.

One of the cruellest insults thrown at Florentino Perez during his first spell at Real Madrid was that the president had turned a great team into football’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters.

For Curly Neal and Meadowlark Lemon read Figo and Zidane. For Wilt Chamberlain and Marques Haynes we had Ronaldo and David Beckham to bring gasps from the crowd and bamboozle the  opposition.

First time around, it took Perez three years to assemble the All-Star cast that came to define his project, and another three for it to collapse under the combined weight of the salaries and egos, and those damned image rights we heard so much about.

In his second spell, Perez seems intent on proving that the only thing he did wrong at the start of the decade was move too slowly.

In the past few days he has pledged 162 million euros in transfer fees alone to sign Kaka from AC Milan and Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

If Marca and As are correct, David Villa will be the next to come, with Xabi Alonso, David Silva and Franck Ribery among the other targets.

The total outlay could be 300 million euros — plus the agents’ fees and the salary commitments for the next half-decade or so. Whether you feel that sort of spending is justifiable in the current climate, and there are plenty who will see it as plain wrong, this is not going to bring Real back to the position they once held as the neutral’s favourite.

The Bernabeu should certainly be an entertaining place to be next season, as Manuel Pellegrini tries to find a way of getting all the new signings playing together (and leaving any of them on the bench will not be an option).

But even if the coach finds the magic formula and Real win their 10th European Cup at their home ground come next May, they are unlikely to generate the sort of admiration and respect that Barcelona have inspired under Pep Guardiola this season.

Great teams are left to evolve over time and are often based around a nucleus of home grown players (think United’s European Cup winning team in 1999 or Guardiola’s Barcelona).

Some are brought together by a coach’s philosophy or force of personality and yes, it often takes a big-name signing to bring out the best in those around them.

Great teams come together in all sorts of ways but they are never designed with marketing in mind, and they are never just bought off the shelf.

GLOBETROTTERS: A member of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team nicknamed Airport hangs on to the hoop after he makes a dunk during an exhibition match in Budapest February 28, 2008 REUTERS/Karoly Arvai

RONALDO: Cristiano Ronaldo is seen celebrating Manchester United’s victory against Porto after their Champions League quarter-final, second leg match in Porto, in this April 15 2009 file photograph. REUTERS/Miguel Vidal