I want to be the first to congratulate Real Madrid on renewing the contract of Cristiano Ronaldo and keeping him tied to the club for another five years.
It's a searingly good piece of football business -- utterly brilliant work.
There isn't another footballer like him anywhere in the world, and ensuring that his power, his goals, his ambition and his kudos remain tied to los Blancos is the kind of business all the other chairmen and presidents wish they were completing right now. The trophies that have come to the Bernabeu, thanks to CR7, represent merely a down payment on what's to come, for these are the golden years.