Real delight as United allow Van Nistelrooy to go for £10m

The Manchester United striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy is expected to complete his move to Real Madrid today after the clubs settled on a fee considerably lower than United's original £16m asking price.

The two clubs are believed to have agreed a final fee of about €15m (£10.3m) for the 30-year-old Dutchman and he is due sign a three-year deal today, subject to a medical.

The player will be presented to fans later in the week before joining up with his new team-mates at their pre-season training camp in Irdning, Austria, at the start of next week. Real's need to bring in a new striker became obvious on Friday when their Brazil centre-forward Ronaldo confirmed that he needed an operation that would almost certainly rule him out of the start of the season.

Ronaldo decided to have the operation on Saturday - under the supervision of Brazilian national team doctors instead of Real's club doctors, which did not go down well with his club.

Despite Real's desperation - they are now without a recognised No 9 - it appears to be United who caved in on their original valuation of the player, set at £16m. United also wanted the deal closed ahead of talks to keep Cristiano Ronaldo and sign the Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres.