The proposed move of Real Madrid captain Iker Casillas to Porto has fallen apart due to negotiations between Casillas and Real Madrid regarding the payment of the final two years of his contract.
Porto cannot afford to pay Casillas the wages he was on in Madrid, the difference being around €5.5 million, less than the international would receive for a year according to the terms of his contract with Real. Casillas wants Real to make up the difference. So far Madrid president Florentino Pérez has so far refused and it seem that the whole deal has been called off over a relatively small amount of money.
Madrid want Casillas gone so they can complete the signing of David de Gea this weekend. But with the Porto deal on hold, at least for the moment, we saw on Thursday the Real Madrid captain (Casillas) and vice captain (Sergio Ramos), along with the rest of his team-mates, attend the first meeting with new coach Rafa Benítez ahead of the start of pre-season tomorrow and the trip to Australia on Sunday.
The last thing Real Madrid want is for Casillas to turn up on Friday morning for his medical check-up and subsequent first training season. But for a club that orchestrates events so well, Perez and Real are really badly handling the departure of a native son. And I am sure that Sergio Ramos is playing close attention to how Casillas is being pushed out the door, thinking that if they can do that to “King Iker”, what would they do to me?
