Iker Casillas 

Real Madrid has officially clarified the rumors linking Casillas to Manchester United. The only reason there is a profile of Casillas on ManUTD.com is that the English club keeps a database of former opponents (there are profiles for Guti, Rau'l, Zidane, Figo..etc). However, this doesn't deny that Fergie is interested in signing Casillas, and quite frankly, I'm surprised that he would think he can get someone as Casillas.

Sir...

Franz Beckenbauer, Bayern Munich's president, has admitted it would be hard to keep hold of some of his players if Real approached them. 

He said that If Real's interest in Franck Ribery is serious then it will be very difficult for him to force the French international, whose his contract expires in 2011, to stay especially if he himself wishes to leave.

"Ribery only has two years left in his contract and If we receiver a good offer from Real Madrid or Manchester United we would then be in a weak position to negotiate, especially if Ribery wants to leave. We may still insist on a contract extension but if the offer is good enough, you never know what can happen", said the German legend

Personally, I think Ribery is the kind of player we REALLY need at the moment especially after we sold Robinho to Man City. He has the pace, skills and mentality that a player needs to have in order to lead a team like Real Madrid.

His performances with Bayern Munich have been phenomenal and honestly I was surprised when I read Beckenbauer comments because I had thought it would impossible for us to negotiate with the German giants over Ribery. However, as it seems, Calderon only needs to fax them first, get a ticket to Germany and get a deal stuck.

With Ribery on the squad, we won't have to rely only on Robben all the time which is stressful for the Dutchman.

However, there hasn't been any clear interest from Real, but you never know, while everyone was talking about Crespo and Tevez, Real were talking with Huntelaar.

Juan Villalonga, a guy who intends to stand against Ramon Calderon and compete for Real's presidency has said that players such as Messi, Ronaldo and Kaka should be playing for Real Madrid. In other words, he wants to adopt the Galagticos policy again.

"Players such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka should be at Real Madrid. I will copy the model that Florentino used," Villalonga told radio station COPE. 

Copying that model is not a smart thing to do. AC Milan are doing it right now with signing Ronaldinho and David Beckham (on loan), and they might be doing well, but it won't work at least not in the long-term.

The key is to bring in players if they are really needed. We sacrificed Makeleele for Beckham, Morienties for Ronaldo..etc we simply wanted big names not players who would fit well into the team.

I'm not saying it was wrong to bring all of those players, but it was wrong to do it non-strategically.

France Football has announced the 30 finalists for the World Player of the Year award which will be decided in December.

Five players from Real Madrid have been chosen. Those include: Casillas, Van Nistelrooy, Van Der Vaart, Pepe and Ramos.

It seems that Real Madrid is the only team with most finalists this year. This says something ;) -

Here is the full list:

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Togo.
Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid), Argentine.
Andreï Archavine (Zénith Saint-Pétersbourg), Russie.
Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Allemagne.
Karim...

The guys over at the official website believe that Iker Casillas is the best goalie in the world and therefore should win this year's Balon d'Or. While you may think they are being subjective here, their reasons are pretty convincing. Here they are:

• 1. He had a tremendously successful year:
• Champion of Europe and champion of Spain. The Balon d'Or recognizes a player's performance between January and December, during which Casillas won La Liga and the Euro and conceded the fewest goals in each.
• 2. He has an amazing track record:
• Only 27 years old, Iker has already won four league titles, two European Cups, two Spanish Super Cups, one...