Robinho, is it for Real?

“We have to remain prudent but we hope that everything will become clear in the next 24 to 48 hours.

“He’s a different player with enormous talent and there aren’t many like him around. We’ve got a week left of our tour (of Asia) and if things work out, we will try to add him with the rest of the team.”

But Brazilian club Santos insisted that Robinho still belonged to them and that they were due the full $50 million.

“The situation hasn’t changed and things are the same as before. If Real Madrid deposits $50 million Euros Robinho will go, but if not he will stay at Santos.”

Real Madrid had earlier said they had agreed to sign Robinho for $30 million.

Real said they had paid 60 percent of the $50 million buy-out clause stipulated in the player’s contract in order to buy Santos’s share of his rights.

His agent Wagner Ribeiro had said Robinho had agreed to forego the 40 percent to which he was entitled, which accounts for the shortfall of $20 million.

“It’s settled,” Ribeiro had said.

Real have been chasing the 21-year-old forward since last year but had met with stiff resistance from Santos, who wanted to hold on to the youngster who had played an instrumental role in their recent success.

No money has been paid to Santos so far.

“No deposit has been made,” Santos president Marcelo Teixeira told Brazilian television.

If it happens, Robinho would be Real’s third signing of the close season, following Uruguayan duo Pablo Garcia and Carlos Diogo.

Robinho has been at loggerheads with Santos since the end of the Confederations Cup when he bade farewell to the supporters and said he was close to signing a deal with Real.

After returning to Brazil, Robinho defied orders to go back to the club and missed 12 training sessions and three matches.

Teixeira went on holiday to Miami and, when he returned, media reports said he refused to meet a Real delegation who had travelled to Santos.

(Reuters)