Gravesen completes move to Real Madrid

Real Madrid have signed Everton's Denmark international Thomas Gravesen on a three-and-a-half year contract, the Spanish club announced.

"Real Madrid and Everton have reached an agreement for the transfer of Thomas Gravesen," Real said in a statement.

Real president Florentino Perez said Gravesen would make a major difference to the side and give the team added bite.

"Gravesen is the player we were missing. We have signed Denmark's best player. I am sure he is going to do some great things this season."

"Those who know him say he's a fighter, a guy with a competitive instinct," Perez said.

The club said Gravesen will play for Real Madrid for the remainder of the season and three more years.

The Spanish giants did not give details on the value of the transfer of the combative 28-year-old midfielder, but Spanish sporting dailies AS and Marca put it at around 3.5 million euros.

The value of the bid will not please Everton manager David Moyes, who has vowed to fight hard to hold on to Gravesen, who joined Everton from Hamburg in 2000.

Everton, who faced losing Gravesen for nothing at the end of the season when his contract was due to expire, said that they had done everything they could to keep the player at Goodison Park.

Chief executive Keith Wyness told www.evertonfc.com: "No-one at Everton wanted to lose Thomas Gravesen. We did everything we could to keep him."

"Once it became clear Thomas had set his heart on a move to Real Madrid we fought hard for the best possible deal. To that end I believe we have been successful."

Gravesen completed his move to Madrid on the same day that ex-Real striker Fernando Morientes was presented as a Liverpool player after his 6.3-million-move to Merseyside from Spain.