FOOTBALL fans across East Lancashire were left choking on their lunch when some unbelievable transfer news broke - Ronaldo has signed for Burnley!

Diehard Clarets who subscribe to the club's official text update service were sent a message saying the Golden Boot winner and World Player Of The Year was on his way to Turf Moor in a three-year deal.

Astonished fans were left, for a few hours at least, relishing the prospect of seeing the Brazilian hotshot in action at Turf Moor next year.

After all, the World Cup winner was fresh from scoring two goals against Athletico Bilbao to secure Real Madrid's 29th league title.

But alas the dream was shattered when the club realised its mistake and issued an apology on its website.

Tony Scholes, of the Clarets Independent Supporters' Association, said: "The big question though is would he get a game? With Taylor, Moore, Blake and Papadopoulos in the squad he might find himself on the bench as we start our new campaign!"

Claret Phil Bardsley phoned the Telegraph to say: "I was in a chip shop buying my dinner when the message came through. It's a good job I wasn't eating them, I might have choked.

"I didn't believe it at all, but then again after Wright and Gascoigne a bit of me thought anything is possible."

Later that afternoon, red-faced club officials admitted the hoax on the club's official website, apologising to text subscribers.

The mistake came about because the website managers were on holiday and an assistant had sent the message out to all subscribers by mistake.

The subsequent apology read: "This morning we sent out a text message to all our SMS subscribers stating that Brazilian international and Real Madrid striker Ronaldo had signed for Burnley on a three-year contract.

"As you may have guessed this message was a hoax and one that we'd like to apologise for.

"Although it's thought that the two-time World Cup winner and current World Player Of The Year would dearly love to play at Turf Moor, he probably feels that joining the Clarets at this time in his career isn't the right move for him, or his family.

"Once again we'd like to apologise to all those Burnley fans that received the SMS this morning and assure you that the next SMS message you receive from Burnley FC will be free of charge."