Espanyol eye Ballack coup

Espanyol presidential candidate Jose Manuel Lara claims he will pursue a deal for Bayern Munich star Michael Ballack if successful.

As seems to be common place in Spain ahead of such elections, Lara has made the bold statement with a view to seducing club members who will cast the votes.

Lara, who is the leading share-holder at the Catalan club, is vying with present incumbent Daniel Sanchez Llibre and former vice president Claudio Biern for the role of president.

Biern recently stated he would try to bring Javier Saviola and Fernando Morientes to the club if he was emerged triumphant and Lara has now made an even more audacious boast by claiming he could bring Ballack to Estadio Olimpico de Montjuic.

The Bayern star is out of contract in the summer and has been widely tipped to join Real Madrid, but Lara is adamant Espanyol could beat their Primera rivals to the punch.

"Ballack is an attainable player and I personally like him a lot," stated Lara.

"His contract finishes on June 30 and that makes everything easier.

"What's more, I think we could finance this transfer with sponsors."

nah no chance they wont get ballack if he leaves bayern munich he will go to real madrid juventus ac milan or Man Utd or he will sign a new deal at bayern

It's an interesting story though, i just think that the candidate is saying that so he will be elected as President.

Similar to when Laporta was in the running at Barcelona and said that he would sign Beckham if elected, but instead got Ronaldinho not a bad comprise eh?

He would never go to Espanyol, thats like a team like Man City going for him which would obviously never happen either. Just a publicity stunt I think

Perhaps if is similar to Barça elections he say that Ballack will be signed but instead they will get Adriano

haha you would be in dreamland eh?

I think that will be the case..

It will depend on how Bayern do in the CL.

They look strong at the minute. Ballack scored a cracker freekick at the weekend. Bayern are one of my favourites for the CL. Bayern, Juve and us, hehe.

I do think Ballack will stay. AC Milan, 3rd in Serie A, not looking so special atm. Man Utd have nothing on Bayern, and he would find it hard getting a place at Juve. Real aren't strong enough for CL now, so realistically Ballacks in the right team for the moment.

I think that Bayern will be eliminated this round.

We'll see!