Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has dismissed disparaging comments from Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

Ferguson claimed earlier this week that Madrid had only signed Gabriel Heinze from the Red Devils in 2007 as a means of luring Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernabeu.

Ferguson, 66, said in an interview with GQ Magazine: "I don't believe they were interested in Heinze - good player though he is. The end game was to get Ronaldo.

"What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco's club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain."

Calderon responded to those comments by saying in remarks reported by Marca on Thursday: "I'm not going to waste any time answering him, I admire his record, but he is getting old."