West Ham's hopes of signing Juan Roman Riquelme look over after it was revealed Brazilian side Cruzeiro are set to sign him. Hammers owners David Sullivan and David Gold had reportedly offered the former Argentinean play-maker a two-year.

However, that move now seems unlikely after Cruzeiro president Zeze Perrella confirmed the club have made a significant offer to Riquelme via his former international team-mate and current Cruzeiro player Juan Pablo Sorin.

Perrella said: "Riquelme's going to have a European salary, playing in Brazil.

"He has already said to Sorin that if he comes to play in Brazil, he wants to play at Cruzeiro. It's for this reason that I'm really hopeful.

"I don't want to create false expectations among our support but it's our wish to bring Riquelme here.

"We're going to wait. He asked to have until the end of the week to decide."