Sir Alex Ferguson has met Cristiano Ronaldo for the first time in six weeks in an attempt to persuade the winger to forgo his "dream" move to Real Madrid and remain at Manchester United.
It is understood the United manager flew to Lisbon for talks with the 23-year-old on Monday, the first face-to-face encounter between the pair since a party at Old Trafford in the days after the club's Champions League final triumph over Chelsea in May.
Ronaldo, on crutches as he recovers from ankle surgery in Amsterdam last week which will sideline him for almost three months, has reiterated in the past seven days his desire to leave United for the Bernabéu. "I know what I want and what I would like," he said in a television interview. "We have to see what happens. I do not know where I will begin next season."
Ferguson had a similar meeting during the summer with Ronaldo two years ago to persuade the Portuguese he belonged at Old Trafford in the aftermath of his confrontation with Wayne Rooney at the World Cup, where he effectively had the England striker sent off during a quarter-final.
At the time Ronaldo had indicated his desire to depart for La Liga and said, "After what happened with Rooney I can't remain there," but Ferguson was able to persuade the then 21-year-old not to leave. The manager also had close-season summits with Eric Cantona on the continent when it appeared the France international had his eye on a move.
Meanwhile the Madrid president, Ramón Calderón, has indicated he expects Ronaldo's arrival to be imminent. According to the Spanish sports daily AS, an unnamed player jokingly asked Calderón when Ronaldo would be arriving, to which he smiled and said: "Don't worry, he'll be here soon."
The Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder had made it clear this week that Ronaldo's signing would not necessarily be welcome among the squad if he were to arrive on greatly elevated wages. "It's not important to me but I know other team-mates would not like that at all," the Dutchman said.
Ronaldo, in Los Angeles for the ESPY awards, was among several first-team players missing from the plane to Cape Town as United yesterday embarked on a four-match tour of Africa. Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Edwin van der Sar and Patrice Evra were also left behind as their team-mates set off on a tour that will take them to South Africa and Nigeria.
