The saga of Real Madrid's ongoing bid to lure Kaka away from AC Milan shows no sign of letting up with the Spanish champs reportedly ready to double the star's salary.
Real are prepared to pay the Brazil playmaker 10 million euros a year and give Milan 80 million to let him go, according to media reports.
Kaka, who extended his contract with Milan until 2011 last year, currently earns around 5.5 million euros a season.
Real Chairman Ramon Calderon seems undeterred by Milan's repeated insistence that the 25-year-old, considered by many the best player in the world at the moment, is not for sale.
"Kaka remains a difficult target to hit, but there is a margin of possibility," Calderon said in an interview published in Spanish sports daily AS on Monday.
"The player has clearly said that his time at Milan is over and that he would like to come to Madrid. So I'd like to reach an agreement with Milan".
At the weekend AS claimed that Kaka had asked Milan chairman Silvio Berlusconi to consider Real's offer for him.
Milan quickly issued a terse statement on the club website, stressing they would no longer respond to AS's "lies" about "Kaka's phantom transfer to Real Madrid".
But Italian sports pundits argue that, with Real offering the player such a massive salary increase, the issue will only be resolved when Kaka clearly states what he wants to do.
Real have also reportedly joined the race to sign Roma's Cristian Chivu.
Inter Milan and Barcelona have been negotiating with Roma and the 26-year-old Romania defender's agent in recent weeks.
Both clubs are said to be willing to pay Roma 14 million euros for Chivu, although Inter would also throw in 20-year-old Nigerian striker Nsofor Victor Obina, who played for Chievo Verona last season.
Real have reportedly put in a bid of 16 million euros.
Roma would like to sell Chivu to a foreign club to avoid strengthening the squad of Serie A rivals Inter.
But the Italian sports press say the player has given his word to Inter, so the Italian champions remain his most likely new employers.
Inter are prepared to pay 40 million euros to buy Spain striker Fernando Torres out of his contract with Atletico Madrid, according to British tabloid The Sun.
Liverpool are also trying to tempt Torres away from Spain.
