It has been confirmed that Real Madrid legend, Sergio Ramos would no longer play for the Spanish club after 16 years at the club.
The contract of the 35-year-old Spanish defender will expire on June 30, 2021, and the contract talks between Real Madrid and the defender could not yield much.
According to reports in Spain, the club’s president Florentino Perez has always wanted to push the defender out of the club but his importance to the club made it difficult long before now.
Unfortunately for Sergio Ramos, he suffered a series of injuries in the just concluded 2020-2021 season that didn’t give him too much opportunity to play in most of the games. His fitness issues enabled him to make just 5 La Liga appearances in which he scored two goals and provided an assist.
Due to this, the defender who used to be the captain of the Spain national team was not taking to Euro 2020 for the first time since 2005 when he made his debut for the team.
Based on this, Real Madrid believe that the 35-year-old central defender had passed his prime, and might not be necessary to still keep him at the club.
But due to how legendary the player has been, president Florentino Perez attempted to offer Sergio Ramos a year deal which would have kept him at the club until June 2022.
On the part of the defender, Sergio Ramos wanted Real Madrid to offer him two years contract extension which Perez refused to consent to.
Besides the age and fitness issues of Sergio Ramos, it is believed that the defender and the club’s president have been having a power tussle.
For instance, Perez wanted the players to accept a pay cut amidst the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic but Ramos reportedly refused to accept a pay cut. Besides that, the 35-year-old defender reportedly urged other players not to accept the pay cut.
This did not go down well with Perez and he is set to allow the defender to go after helping the club to win four Champions League titles and five La Liga titles.
The club has announced that there would be a farewell press conference in honor of Sergio Ramos who made 671 appearances and scored 101 goals for the Spanish giants.
At the time of publishing this report, the next destination of Sergio Ramos is not known but there are speculations that he might be heading to the Premier League or the Major League Soccer this summer.
📊 1⃣6⃣ seasons.
— LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) June 17, 2021
📅 4⃣6⃣9⃣ games.
⚽ 7⃣2⃣ goals.
🏆 5⃣ #LaLigaSantander titles.
✨ @SergioRamos… a hero of @realmadriden, a hero of #LaLigaSantander! ©️💜#LaLigaHistory pic.twitter.com/qyVJ92XtGB
