Sergio Ramos: "When I accepted the renewal offer, they told me that it had already expired"

Three weeks after the eventful departure of Zinedine Zidane from Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos arrived and this was not calm either.

Once the official ceremony with Florentino Pérez in Valdebebas was over, in which the president handed him the club's gold and diamond insignia, and everyone shared their congratulations, with tears included, the 35-year-old player sat in the room press and gave his version of events.

He tried to avoid thick words, but he did not fail to underline his surprise at the way they left.

More information

• Sergio Ramos leaves Real Madrid

• Goodbye to Sergio Ramos: the 'Trencador' of Beds

“I have never wanted to leave Real Madrid.

When I accepted the one-year renewal offer, it had already expired and I was not aware of it.

They told my agent a week ago and we were surprised.

They never gave me an ultimatum.

I don't want resentment, I don't want confrontations.

I stay that it is a see you later, "said the Sevillian, who had a world of smiling when he had to pose with the 22 titles won in these 16 years as a target.

The message was clear to Sergio Ramos and it did not take long for him to present it to journalists. “To give a bit of detail, I go back to the League of confinement, which we won. As a result, the club offered me to extend the contract, but for obvious reasons of the covid issue, it was delayed and left on the sidelines. In the last few months, the club made me a one-year offer with a lower salary. I want to emphasize and make it clear that money was never a problem. From my mouth the president already knew that mine was not an economic issue, that it was a matter of years. They offered me one and I wanted two. Mine was tranquility and continuity for me and my family. It was the only thing I ever asked for. But I emphasize again, the economic issue has never been a problem with me. And, at this point,In the last conversations I accept the offer with the lower salary and I am told that there is no longer an offer. I am informed that, even having given the OK, this offer has an expiration date and I had not found out, "said the defense almost at the beginning of his speech.

The "Sergio Ramos brand"

Time and again, Ramos insisted on the idea that no one at the club had told him that the one-year offer had an expiration date.

“Nobody notified me.

I understood that everything was part of the negotiation, that there was a friendly treatment.

It's super respectable, but it surprised me.

I would have liked to have the tranquility of contracts that others had ”, he lamented.

He admitted, yes, having told the club in recent months that they could "plan" the next season without him, although he clarified that phrase was not related to the renewal.

“Nobody is above the club.

My negotiation was outside the planning, "he clarified.

It has been weeks and weeks of stuck negotiations and labor litigation that finally broke the rope, but Ramos warned that he has no regrets. “When you buy my brand, Sergio Ramos, it is with its strengths and weaknesses. I like to always be me, from day one. The word that best defines me is purity ”, he affirmed.

The center-back wanted to avoid a direct criticism of Florentino Pérez like the one made by Zinedine Zidane in his harsh farewell letter, but the bottom line of the message left no doubts about the wear between them and the distance in this final stretch. “Over time, I have put the resentment aside and the misunderstandings are staying in the past. I don't want any kind of confrontation. Of course, I like to tell the truth. I'm going to stay with the pure Sergio Ramos. My relationship with the president has always been extraordinary. Not love and hate as others may say, but father-son at the sports level. I will be grateful to you for bringing me. So I will remember. I am not going to make a statement against him because there are also fights and disagreements in relationships and families. Each one has to look out for their interests.I can assure you that I am going to keep the last hug ”. However, and at the insistence of journalists, he dropped that he would have liked the white president to have sat down with him in the press room to answer questions. "Maybe it wouldn't have been bad," he pointed out.

Ramos did not offer clues about his future, although he did clarify that returning to Sevilla now is not an option - "neither on my part nor on his side," he warned, and that he would never go to Barcelona.

“There are interested clubs, but I never had in mind to leave Real Madrid.

Today we have to accept the present, look for another team and try to add more titles to the track record ”.

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