David Gill, the Manchester United chief executive, has told Real Madrid to forget about trying to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring that the Portugal winger is not for sale at any price (Oliver Kay writes). There have been indications from Madrid that Ronaldo is Real’s top priority for this summer, but Gill believes that the Spanish club are wasting their time.

“We are well aware that Real Madrid are always interested in the best players in the world, as are we, but that interest in Cristiano Ronaldo simply cannot be activated — absolutely no way, whatever the money,” Gill said. “We’re a buying club, not a selling club. We have never sold a player that Alex Ferguson [the manager] wanted to keep. We don’t need to. There is no financial requirement to [do so].

“We extended his [Ronaldo’s] contract last year through to 2012. Everything about him is Manchester United — he’s like George Best or Eric Cantona. You can’t sell players like Cristiano and we are not going to. It wouldn’t make sense. If you sold him and realised the money, you would only have to go and buy someone else — and there isn’t anyone else like Ronaldo in the world — so it doesn’t solve the problem.

In any case, what message would that send out?”