Ribery not going anywhere, Bayern boss says

BERLIN: Bayern Munich's president denied on Thursday press reports that the German giants' French international Franck Ribery was going to move to Real Madrid in a 55-million-euro deal next summer.

"There are no offers at the moment, no options and no talks at all either about him or with him," Uli Hoeness told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.

German specialist website ran.de had reported on Wednesday that the 26-year-old winger's move was hammered out in August between Bayern and the Spanish club at the time of Dutch star Arjen Robben's transfer to Munich.

Bayern did not pay Real the agreed 25-million-euro price tag for the Dutch winger, instead sitting on the cash in anticipation of the Ribery deal, said ran.de, which is owned by German private broadcaster Sat.1.

But Hoeness, club manager at Bayern for 30 years who replaced Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer as president in November, said this was wide of the mark.

"There is no deal with Real. We paid for Robben quite normally."

He also said that the club wanted Ribery to stay once his contract expires in 2011: "That is our first option. Only if we see no chance of this will we start talking to other clubs."

Ribery, who has been out of action through injury for over two months, has made no secret in the past of his desire to join Real.

"I would really like to win the Champions League, but our team doesn't have the necessary firepower right now," the winger told the Bild daily recently.

"At the moment, we can't compete with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal and Inter."

Other recent reports have linked him with a move to Chelsea.