Midfielder Sergio Ramos turned down offers from Saudi Arabia and Man Utd to return to boyhood club Sevilla.
Ramos made his debut with Sevilla wearing the familiar number 4 shirt on September 4. Photo by: Sevilla FC
According to British newspaper Sunsport, after the end of his contract with PSG, Ramos received a number of offers, including a contract with a season salary of $ 21.6 million from Al Ittihad. This is the club that recruited N’Golo Kante, Karim Benzema, Jota and Fabinho this summer.
Man Utd are also pursuing Ramos after Raphael Varane was seriously injured in August. The English club even held talks with the Spanish centre-back’s representatives in the last few days of the transfer window and offered a one-year contract with a weekly salary of $ 8,92.
The Spanish centre-back has also received interest from Galatasaray, FC Porto and several teams in the American Vocational Soccer League (MLS). But Ramos rejected all these offers to return to Sevilla for a season salary of more than $1 million.
“Ramos joined the club at the age of seven, going through the youth levels until he reached the first team at the age of 16 in the 2002-2003 season. The Sevilla academy centre-back returned home almost two decades after leaving Real Madrid at the age of 19,” the statement said. Seville Sept. 4 reads.
Ramos played for the Sevilla academy from 1996 to 2003, playing for the Sevilla youth team in the 2003–2004 season and the first team in the 2004–2005 season, before moving to Real. In the Sevilla shirt, the Spanish centre-back scored three goals in 50 games.
“Hello Sevilla fans, today is a very special day for me, very emotional,” he said. Ramos said in the Sevilla launch video. “I finally get to go home and can’t wait to feel the Sevilla shirt and badge on my chest again.”
According to Ramos, returning to Sevilla is also a way for him to fulfil a promise he made to his father, grandfather and late friend Antonio Puerta. Puerta joined the Sevilla academy in 1993, three years ahead of Ramos. The two were close friends, playing for youth teams together and then moving up to the first team. On August 25, 8, during Sevilla’s La Liga opener, Puerta suffered a heart attack then died.
Ramos could play his first game when Sevilla host Las Palmas in the fifth round of La Liga on September 17, or their Champions League Group B opener against Lens on September 9, both at Sanchez Pizjuan’s home stadium.
In his 16 years with Real Madrid, Ramos scored 101 goals across 671 games, helping the royal team win four Champions Leagues, five La Liga, two King’s Cups, four Spanish Super Cups, three European Super Cups and four FIFA Club World Cups.
In 2021, the Spanish centre-back joined PSG on a free transfer. He missed most of the first season, due to injury, but played well the following season. Ramos won two Ligue 1s and one French Super Cup with the Parisian side.
