Cristiano Ronaldo

The season has still to end and already it appears that another summer of feverish speculation surrounding the future of Cristiano Ronaldo awaits, but the Manchester United player moved yesterday to allay fears that he may leave Old Trafford in the coming months by insisting that he was at the “right club”.

Ronaldo might have been partly to blame for the persistent rumours about his future by speaking on several occasions of his desire “one day” to play in Spain but, although he has said that he has been flattered by interest from Real Madrid, the Portugal winger is adamant that he has no plans to leave United after helping the club to retain their Barclays Premier League title.

“I’m at the right club, playing with the right players and I learn things all the time,” he said yesterday. “That’s what’s great about being at United. I improve all the time and I want to every season. I think I’m a better player now than five years ago.”

Sir Alex Ferguson has become accustomed to what he believes are Real’s deliberate attempts to unsettle Ronaldo, but as long as the two-time Footballer of the Year’s form remains unaffected by the speculation, the United manager will resist the temptation to report the Spanish club to Fifa for their brazen courting of a player who has scored 41 goals this term.

That decision has been reached partly because United are reluctant to draw any more attention to an issue that has reared its head with alarming regularity in recent months, but also because they believe that there is little that Fifa, the world governing body, would be prepared to do. In addition, Ferguson would no doubt argue that he has more pressing matters to attend to at present.