Real to fight for Kluivert

The future of Patrick Kluivert is still unclear with Barcelona and Real Madrid claiming they will have the player by the end of next season.

Several Barca directors are convinced that Kluivert will renew his Nou Camp contract and stay with the Catalan giants.
Meanwhile other parties, including Barca chairman Joan Gaspart have a sneaky suspicion that the Dutch ace is biding his time and will leave the Nou Camp for the Bernabeu on a free transfer next June.

Barca will re-open talks with the player's agent Sergi Lens next week, but Real directors reckon that Kluivert will reject Barca's offer and sign for them when his contract expires next summer.

If that is the case then Barcelona may well employ hardline tactics - leaving Kluivert out in the cold during his final year, which was the case with Luis Milla and Bernd Schuster when they left for Real.

Juventus are also lining up an offer for Kluivert should they fail to sign Christian Vieri from Inter Milan.

For the moment, Barca general director Anton Parera is looking on the bright side.

"We have total faith that Kluivert wants to stay here at Barca. We'll have to see how the two sides come to an arrangement - but that shouldn't be too difficult," he said.