Player rejecting contract after being offered what he wants?

I'm trying to sign Ronaldo (Brazilian striker, not Cristiano!) on a free transfer for Newcastle.

When I click to offer the contract, it comes up with his contract requests indicating he is interested in joining me. However after initially offering what he wanted (only £7k p/w and £60k signing on fee) he rejected. So I tried again upping his squad status, wages and signing on fee respectively. I have tried 4 times now gradually increasing my offer to him. 4 times he has rejected despite me offering what he wants and more.

There are no other interested teams and no other offers and I am offering what he wants so what's the catch?

I was trying to sign him as cover for myself at man utd, but he wouldn't sign no matter what I offered, even offered 100k a week and he rejected that - his injury was almost over so he would pass a medical but he just wasn't interested in coming, despite only wanting 12k a week.

I've had the same problem with Beletti, he says he wants 27k a week and still rejects 35k a week.

I found this, too... but then I realized it's because he's not being clear on his demanded squad status. At Man Utd, he wouldn't come until I offered him a key role in the team - despite only asking for 12k per week, which I could afford as backup. I'd imagine that for Newcastle, even a key role might not be enough. So, I think the problem is that you can afford his wage demands, so a bug is making it pop up as possible to sign him - when in fact, it isn't for you. Try the key role, just in case.

If you havent offered any clauses, try them all. There was a bug in the demo and I didnt see it down as a fix for the first patch nor receive any notification about it being sorted.

The problem was that the player wouldnt announce he actually wanted clause X.

Unlikely to be your problem, but try it out (reloading of course) and let us know!

If you havent offered any clauses, try them all. There was a bug in the demo and I didnt see it down as a fix for the first patch nor receive any notification about it being sorted.

The problem was that the player wouldnt announce he actually wanted clause X.

Unlikely to be your problem, but try it out (reloading of course) and let us know!

I've noticed this at all levels of the game. Even when offered exactly what they want they sometimes won't accept. Odd.

i got him at Man City on 8.5k a week but i had him on trial for a month so maybe try offering him a trial and offer him a contract during the trial

Funny enough, I had a look at Ronaldo and shortlisted him when I had Torres out for 6 months :| but eventually decided against making an approach when Adriano became available on the cheap. I didn't remove him from my shortlist though so got news items on him.

I then noticed the same slew of 4 or 5 teams (mostly Brazilian) then offered him a contract, over and over again, but he didn't actually sign for anyone till almost the end of my first season!

So maybe its a Ronaldo-specific thing and it affects AI teams too? Not sure though!

Must be the case that your local rivals send a transvestite to intercept him everytime hes on his way to confirm the contract signing lol

This is an old old old bug. It has probably been in every FM and im kinda surprised its still in fm09 since they've said they rewrote the whole transfers thing.

Paul B - You may be right. The first few times the status was set to backup - which I immediately changed to Rotation upon first offering him the contract. About the 4th or 5th time I offered him a contract it came up that he wanted Key Player status and £26k p/w which I offered and he accepted.

Providing I can keep him fit come 1st January he should hopefully show my misfiring no hopers up front a thing or two about scoring goals!

Not again this one. Wasn't the transfer market made from scratch? Agh.