Real Madrid has decided to sign an agreement with Netherlands striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar from Ajax Amsterdam. The Spanish champions on Tuesday have m,ade it clear that the 25-year-old will sign a contract until 2013. Huntelaar will not be available for Real until January when he will replace compatriot Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season as is suffering from knee injury.

Ajax said in a separate statement that Real has agreed to pay up to 27 million euros ($34.4 million), made up of a 20 million euro fixed payment and a 7 million euro variable payment.

The first appearance of Huntelaar will be depended on how quickly he recovers from an ankle injury. He has been sidelined since the beginning of last month.

Ajax coach Marco van Basten said in a statement that he has met Klaas Jan would prefer to finish the season with him. The injury-ravaged Real Madrid is in a string of unimpressive performances recently, including the dumping out of the King’s Cup by third tier Real Union. They lost both at home and away to Juventus in the Champions League, and suffered morale-sapping defeats against modest Real Valladolid and Getafe. Real had been seen slipping down to fourth in the standings, behind Barcelona by six points. They have an array of eight injured players to add another stab on belly.

Huntelaar will be now seen competing with Raul and Gonzalo Higuain for a place in the starting line up. The presence of another five Dutch compatriots, Van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Royston Drenthe will help Real to make the new striker feel at home. Huntelaar has capped 18 times and has scored 10 goals after his debut for Ajax in January 2006. He signed for Ajax from Heerenveen, and has scored a total of 105 goals in 136 appearances.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 8:03 am and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.