REAL Madrid presidential hopeful Florentino Perez has claimed ‘‘an agreement’’ is in place for Cristiano Ronaldo to join the club.

Perez’s comments in the Spanish press are bound to irritate Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Scot firmly believes the Portuguese winger will see out his contract at Old Trafford.

But Perez has again stirred things up between the clubs following United’s defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League final.

He is the overwhelming favourite to return to the post he held from 2000-06 and could be installed as president as early as Monday, without the need for elections if no other candidates step forward before the May 31 deadline.

There had originally been three other candidates who had announced they would be mounting bids.

But Eugenio Martinez Bravo, Juan Onieva and Eduardo Garcia have all pulled out of the running in the last fortnight, with the 57.4m euro (£50.3m) bank guarantee the stumbling block.

Perez said of Ronaldo: ‘‘I’ve read there is an agreement by means of which he would come for £80m.’’ Asked if he would pay that amount, Perez said: ‘‘Nobody should doubt we are going to design with our sporting advisors a spectacular project.’’