Ribery 'wants to join Real Madrid'

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 10:47

FRANCK Ribery has confirmed he wants to leave Bayern Munich and join Real Madrid.

The France playmaker's future has been under the spotlight since the end of the Bundesliga season although Ribery himself has remained silent.

But the 26-year-old has now admitted he would jump at the chance of joining up with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema at the Bernabeu.

He told L'Equipe: "I have decided that I want to leave. It will be Real Madrid or nothing.

"I will wait to see how things pan out but I would like to hold talks with the Bayern management soon."

Madrid are keen on the former Marseille man but have met with stiff resistance from Bayern, who are adamant their star turn will not be leaving for Spain.

And Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness does not believe Ribery's desire to leave alters their position.

"Does Franck want to go to Real?" he asked.

"For us, that changes absolutely anything. Life is not always a fairytale.

"Real have not made us a specific proposal and we do not need their money."

Madrid took their summer spending past the 200 million euro mark last night when they signed France international Benzema for a fee which could rise to 41 million euros (34.8m) dependent on performance clauses.