REAL DREAMS: SOME LIVE THEM, SOME DON'T

"I am proud to be playing for the best club in the world."

That's gotta hurt, Cristiano.

Rafael van der Vaart was quoted the aforementioned line during his first press conference after being unveiled by Real Madrid on the 5th of August. Add that with Los Merengues president Ramon Calderon's "Van der Vaart is the first signing and probably the only one" plus Fergie's "The matter is closed now, he is a Manchester United player, it's finished." and you can easily imagine CR7 with a few empty boxes of Kleenex surrounding him at his swish Beverley Hills Hotel suite.

Real Madrid have been courting Cristiano throughout the summer after he revealed his dream of playing for the Blancos. But, things haven't quite worked out for CR7 and his dream, and with van der Vaart's signing, it seemed as if this case was closed, at least for next season.

So, it came as no surprise on August 6th when Spanish newspaper Publico quoted CR7 saying, 'Ferguson heard my arguments, I heard his and, in fact, it was settled that the best for both parties would be for me to stay. Therefore, I can confirm that, next season, I will play for Manchester United.'

Part of the blame for CR7's predicament goes to his agent, Jorge Mendes, who is also responsible for Anderson and Nani's transfer to ManU. Jorge Mendes, at the behest of ManU, allegedly advised CR7 from making too many noises and this helped in diminishing Real's confidence, and ultimately their interest, in landing the midfielder.

Although the newest comments from the coveted midfielder have done enough to douse the transfer rumours for now, it still is highly likely that CR7 will ultimately become a Los Blancos player before the commencement of the 2009-2010 season. But, till then, he'll have to spend one more season with an unforgiving manager and, more importantly, unforgiving ManU fans.