Injury-plagued Real Madrid about to sign Huntelaar (News Feature)

By Duncan Shaw Dec 2, 2008, 8:08 GMT

Madrid - What should a great club do when it is immersed in a massive injury crisis and has slipped down to fourth in its domestic league?

Answer: sign a top-class forward to revitalize the attack - and to cheer up the frustrated fans.

This is exactly what troubled Real Madrid intend to do now, by signing Klaas Jan Huntelaar from Dutch giants Ajax.

Embattled Real president Ramon Calderon hinted on Monday evening that he was about to buy 'a top-class striker', and the Spanish media are sure that he was referring to Huntelaar.

The imminent signing of Huntelaar is front-page news on Tuesday in Madrid sports papers AS and Marca.

AS carries the headline 'Imminent Signing', while Marca insists that the Ajax forward is 'The Chosen One.'

The two papers agree that Calderon will have to pay Ajax more than 20 million euros (25.33 million dollars) for the 25-year-old Netherlands international.

Huntelaar, currently out with knee ligament trouble, would not be able to play in La Liga until the January transfer 'window' opens, but would be able to play for Real in the Champions League since Ajax have been absent from that tournament this season.

The signing of Huntelaar would swell Real's Dutch colony to six, since they already have Royston Drenthe, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael Van der Vaart, Arjen Robben and Ruud Van Nistelrooy on their books.

Ironically, deadly rivals Barcelona have traditionally been Spain's 'Dutch team', while Real have generally preferred South American and German imports.

Ajax have apparently asked for a couple of days in which to consider Real's offer. AS claims that the Amsterdam club might be tempted to try to get a higher price for their star striker, now that Calderon has made his intentions clear.

Calderon also hinted at buying a new winger in January, to replace Robinho, who angrily decamped to Manchester City at the end of August, irritated at Calderon's obsession with buying Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United.

The truth is that the much-vaunted Real squad is looking rather thin and patchy right now.

The only summer signing, in the end, was Van der Vaart from Hamburg.

Real are undergoing the worst injury crisis in their recent history, with Miguel Torres, Fabio Cannavaro, Pepe, Gabriel Heinze, Mahamadou Diarra, Sneijder, Gonzalo Higuain Robben and Van Nistelrooy all out of action.

The only fit strikers available to coach Bernd Schuster, at the moment, are veteran Raul and the peripheral Javier Saviola, now only a pale shadow of the player he was at Barcelona seven years ago.