Real Madrid Agree Karim Benzema Deal - Report
Karim Benzema looks to have had his next move decided...
1 Jul 2009 10:29:18
Ligue 1 : Karim Benzema (Lyon)
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Ligue 1 : Karim Benzema (Lyon)
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* Karim Benzema
Real Madrid have reached an agreement with Olympique Lyonnais to sign Karim Benzema for €35 million and the deal will be made official in the next couple of days, according to reports in Spain.
Both Marca and AS state that the highly-rated French striker will become Los Merengues fourth big-money arrival of the summer after negotiations saw a deal reached.
With Manchester United preparing to make a move, Madrid president Florentino Perez moved to ensure that talks pushed things along and that an agreement was done to prevent Benzema going elsewhere.
The 21-year-old is not due back from his summer holiday until late on Wednesday and he is due to hold talks with Lyon coach Claude Puel on Thursday morning to discuss what he wants to do.
In Spain, it is being reported that he will be told by his club that a deal has been agreed and that it will be in his best interests to decide quickly whether or not he wants to go.
There have been mixed signals coming from Benzema as he has announced that he would like to join one of Europe's biggest clubs, but that he also wants to remain with Lyon in the year before the World Cup Finals.
The French club's president, Jean-Michel Aulas, was keen to sort out one way or another what would happen to his club's homegrown star in order to allow Puel to continue with his squad rebuilding.
Madrid presented Kaka in front of thousands of supporters at the Bernabeu on Tuesday and Perez stated that another new player would be announced soon, which led to intense speculation that it was Benzema.
Now AS and Marca have stated that the deal was agreed on Wednesday morning and that both parties are now waiting for the player himself to give the green light to it
http://goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/07/01/1357110/real-madrid-agree-karim-benzema-deal-report