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“If you were president of Real Madrid, would you have let Sergio Ramos go for free?” Sergio Ramos was asked. There was only the slightest hint of a pause, also the flicker of a smile, and the response was swift.
“He would have renewed his contract for life,” he said.
But Sergio Ramos is not the president of Real Madrid; Florentino Pérez is. And that question was asked in May 2019. Eighteen months later, there have still been no extensions, renewals or agreements. There are also no real signs of one. Instead, his deal has been exhausted, until the last six months, the end in sight. On July 1, Sergio Ramos – club captain Sergio Ramos, the man who has played 666 games and won 22 trophies for Real Madrid – will be able to go wherever he wants, for free. During the past week, he was allowed to talk to whomever he wanted.
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The thing is, the person who really Really wants to talk not in a hurry to talk to him. Not on their terms, anyway. Not yet. Instead, the conversations are held in public, but by proxy. There is a lot of pride and a lot of politics too. Sides are taken and stories are told, but no solution is found. A line has been crossed. Ramos is in his sixteenth season at the club; now he only has six months left on his contract with Real Madrid.
He also has no offer to continue, or so he says.
In the end, this may be nothing, and smart money says it probably will be. For some who see this play, and “play” sometimes seems like the right word, there is a certain fatigue, a sense of deja vu, a “so what?” You have heard some of these somewhat seedy tales before. And even now, even at this point in Ramos’ contract, it seems likely that despite all the talk, he will end up renewing and staying at Madrid.
But this is not like previous times, especially legally, and that it has reached this point is something quite.
Ramos is Mr. Madrid, but could he suddenly end his 15-year term this summer? Diego Souto / Quality Sport Images / Getty Images
After all these years, Ramos is now 34 years old and joined at 19, it would be strange to see him elsewhere. For him especially. For Zinedine Zidane too. Ramos, Lucas Vázquez and Luka Modric are reaching the end of their agreements. Neither has reached an agreement yet: there are few concerns with Modric, Lucas Vázquez rejected the first offer and then, there is Ramos. Zidane wants everyone to stay, especially his captain. “It is for the good of all,” said the Madrid coach. “We want it to be resolved as soon as possible.”
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Normally, a player over the age of 30 would only be offered a one-year extension, but Real Madrid say they have offered Ramos a two-year contract, taking him to 36. According to the club’s version, Ramos would be offered the same conditions in which he is currently, between 12 and 13 million euros a year, after taxes, less the 10% reduction applied to the entire squad due to the financial crisis .
The word from the Ramos camp is that no, they haven’t. According to this version of events, he has not had a suitable offer at all. There is a suspicion that the club is not so willing to retain him. Having reached this point, Ramos reportedly told Pérez at the team’s hotel just before the turn of the year that he would now listen to other clubs (as if he hadn’t done it before). Many of Real Madrid’s rivals in Europe are watching this, if only because they would be crazy not to do so.
That day in late May 2019, when Ramos said that if it was Pérez he would give Ramos a life contract, he also said that they were like “father and son.” He said that Pérez had always shown him “a special affection”, that “they love each other very much.” However, he also admitted that things had not gone well, that he was upset by how he felt treated. And as much as he stated that “confrontation brings love”, and asked “who has not fought with his father?” – Yours has been and continues to be a difficult relationship.
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That day, Ramos was at the Bernabéu to publicly announce that he was staying. Earlier that season, there was a showdown between him and Pérez after the game against Ajax, which was lost by suspension. “Pay me and I’m going,” he had said. Shortly after, he had asked Real Madrid to let him go to China, for free. Pérez blocked him, just as he had blocked Ramos’ attempt to go to Manchester United in 2015.
Back then, the threat of Ramos leaving had been real, very real. A strategy had been developed. Ramos had pushed, although when it came to that, he couldn’t push him past the line. But Madrid had just lost Iker Casillas, the captain of Real, and Pérez could not allow Ramos, his vice-captain, to leave as well. Ramos had entered a meeting ready to walk, his argument prepared, determined to force an exit. But Pérez, under pressure but still in control, wouldn’t let him.
It was the two men face to face, no one else – José Ángel Sánchez, Real’s general manager, and René Ramos, Sergio’s brother and agent, were unable to enter – they were long, lasting hours, and at times he was angry. A lot was said, and a lot of it was not pleasant. Pérez told Ramos that he couldn’t let him go and that he wouldn’t let him go. Just no. Say what you want, you don’t go. Madrid was all that Pérez had and no one was going to put him at risk. There were promises, but also threats.
In 2015, Ramos had two years left on his contract, as he had in May 2019, and he felt he had no choice but to back down: he knew how this would sell, how it was already selling, in fact, and he couldn’t. hear his fans whistle him to a sad and bitter end. He had a lot to lose and he would not be allowed to win.
In return, he got a new deal and the crisis ended with a new contract, as is often the case. If Ramos had to back down, Perez also had to step up, nearly doubling the defender’s salary. It hadn’t been his initial goal, despite what many have assumed since then, but it was a good result. In time, it got even better. There is no doubt that it was the correct one, in fact. For everyone.
Ramos remains an anchor for Madrid not only in their defense, but in terms of performances in big games, racking up some important goals against rivals like Barcelona. Alejandro Rios / DeFodi Images via Getty Images
Ramos is 34 years old, but still as vital as ever; he is probably the best captain the club has ever had, someone who symbolizes Madrid like no one else. He is an authority figure, more powerful than any player. More powerful than anyone in the club, in fact … except Perez. If anything, Ramos has been a better player ever since and has won more than he ever imagined. As captain, he has lifted two Leagues and three European Cups.
What he hasn’t had is a new deal and the scars (and mistrust) remain. Somehow the divide has deepened. In May 2019, when power was again with the president who could force him to fulfill his contract, Ramos pointed out that he and Pérez only needed to “sit down and talk to each other, not let others interfere.” He said one of the mistakes was the “environment, “the environment: that whirlpool of politics, noise and interest.
However, two years later, the noise remains. The difference is that it has entered a phase that it had not reached before: the final stage, the last six months. And so the story is told by each side, with the media as spokespersons, and two powerful and proud men do not come together at all. “I didn’t like the fact that the story got away,” Ramos said at the time. And you know exactly why and where you did it. Just like it does now. Like them too.
Ramos, left, and Pérez, right, have a stormy relationship, but one feels they will be able to negotiate an extension before the summer. Etsuo Hara / Getty Images
And so there are stories of Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, of Ramos and Lionel Messi becoming teammates somewhere. And so there are conflicting versions of events. And so different men are to blame, depending on who you read or listen to. And guilt does matter. The narrative does too, on both sides. And so there is a stalemate, for now.
Most players over 30 get just one year; Ramos has won more, he rightly believes. They have offered him more, says Madrid. Not only for what he has been, but for what he is, possibly his most important player. He has earned the right to expect a good offer from Madrid and to listen to offers from other places. If any of them will be as good as this is another issue, in a world where COVID-19 has imposed cuts on everyone, described by Pérez as “our downfall.”
All of which leaves them in a stalemate that shouldn’t have gotten that far, but has, for many reasons. A solution now requires a change; someone has to concede. These are not guys who like to give in, but they don’t need to move a lot.
There is still that inescapable feeling that all this could be irrelevant and that Ramos in any other club is still unthinkable, all this is just a way to temporarily avoid the inevitable, the only thing that makes sense. There is a phrase in Spanish that seems correct at this point: they are men who are “condemned to understand each other.”
There is another easy solution, one that Ramos himself identified that day in May 2019 when he proposed a lifetime contract.
“I’d play here for free,” he said.
Source: espn.co.uk
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