Sergio Ramos: Is he interested in leaving Real Madrid for Manchester City? - Expert view from Spain

ByAdrián G. Roca

Updated 04/01/2021 at 22:45 GMT

Manchester City are monitoring Sergio Ramos' contract talks with Real Madrid, according to a report, so could the Spaniard be swayed to jump ship to the Premier League or will he simply use the interest to leverage a better deal? Adrian Garcia of Eurosport Spain breaks down the latest contract saga involving Real's captain.

First of all, some context: Sergio Ramos wants to re-sign with Real Madrid and get his last big contract. But over the last few months, and especially from January 1 with the possibility to negotiate with another club, this topic has become a game of chess.

The rumoured offer from PSG and this new interest from Manchester City, plus Manchester United’s interest in 2015, are strategic movements from Ramos' team. His agent is his brother René, and he is always linking Sergio with top European clubs. René and Sergio Ramos have the ear of many media outlets and influential journalists: Cope, Diario AS, Cadena SER etc.

On the other hand, Florentino Pérez has his own army of media and opinion leaders, especially at Marca, La Sexta and ‘infotainment’ TV channel called ‘Chiringuito’ (pure bulls***), hosted by Josep Pedrerol.

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All of them are the pieces of this chess game. Ramos is very popular and loved amongst Real Madrid fans, but all fans are conditioned by the media and these chess pieces. A big percentage of Real fans know that this club can win titles without Ramos or, previously, Cristiano Ronaldo. And the popularity of Ramos is decreasing due to this behaviour, putting money before club and ‘madridismo’ (support of Real).

Ramos is 34, 35 in March, and he could play two-three more years at the top level. But should Real Madrid pay for a big new contract? That’s the question.

Two years ago, Ramos threatened Real Madrid with a big offer from Chinese football. And Florentino said: ‘OK, you can go but for €70M, not for free. Bring me the money and go.’

A day later, Ramos said in a press conference: “I’d play for free for Real Madrid”. This sentence was his way of saying sorry for this fake offer from China and inelegant way of saying to Florentino: ‘I want more money’.

Real Madrid is currently involved in three contract renewals: Ramos, Luka Modric and Lucas Vázquez. Our thought is Real Madrid will announce these three new contracts in the following weeks. To be clear in the case of Ramos: the player wants more money, a new contract under his conditions.

Real line up Ramos replacement after agent's criticism - Euro Papers

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