United pay £12m for Ronaldo

Manchester United today spent a massive £12.24million on Portuguese teenager Cristiano Ronaldo.

The capture had been widely expected but the size of the fee will take many by surprise.

The highly rated Sporting Lisbon forward has signed a five-year contract with the Premiership champions to become Sir Alex Ferguson's fourth signing this summer.

United moved quickly to secure the 18-year-old after Chelsea showed late interest and offered Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink plus £3m to the Portuguese club.

Ferguson claimed an agreement had been in place to sign the player "months ago" but United quickened their pursuit when it became clear other clubs were also chasing him.

He said: "We have been negotiating for Cristiano for quite some time, but the interest in him from other clubs accelerated in the last few weeks so we had to move quickly to get him. It was only through our association with Sporting that they honoured our agreement of months ago.

"He is an extremely talented footballer, a two- footed attacker who can play anywhere up front: right, left or through the middle.

"After we played Sporting last week the lads in the dressing room talked about him constantly, and on the plane back from the game they urged me to sign him - that's how highly they rated him.