What is the future of Sergio Ramos?

 

Almost one month has passed after Sergio Ramos' meeting with Florentino Perez before the clash against Celta Vigo, yet the two parties have yet to reach an agreement on potential contract renewal.

Since then, several alleged parts of their dialogue have leaked but no advance has been made in the negotiations.

Ramos' current deal with Real Madrid runs until this summer and the club is aware that the 34-year-old center-back can negotiate his future with another team since January 1.

Los Blancos believe that Ramos will not receive an offer higher than that of Real Madrid. As Marca reported last Wednesday, Real Madrid stress that they will not better the offers they made either to Ramos or Lucas Vazquez.

Meanwhile, Luka Modric has accepted to renew his deal and has agreed on a 10 percent pay cut.

According to Marca, “For their part, the club are adamant that they have to adapt to the new reality following the COVID-19 crisis.”

“Sporting matters are always a priority, but they want to avoid a situation similar to Barcelona's crisis and this is the reason behind their decision to turn down Cristiano Ronaldo's high demands a few years ago.”

“Meanwhile, Ramos will decide on his future based on the contract length and salary that he will be offered in the next few months.”

The contract saga of Ramos has turned into a television drama.

Ramos always shared a close relationship with President Florentino Perez and he's never left a contract extension this late.

However, the two parties have been stuck in opposing positions throughout current negotiations, with Los Blancos not budging over their short-term renewals for older players.

Marca says that Florentino, though, has been here before. In his two stints in charge of Real Madrid, the president has let a handful of stars leave via the backdoor after a breakdown in contract talks.

Back in 2003, “Hierro will renew no matter where the club is at,” Florentino said as Real Madrid's veteran captain neared the end of his contract in that season.

Those comments were in March and, by July, Hierro had left. His relationship with the club and its president had declined in the final weeks of the season.

After being eliminated from the Champions League by Juventus, Los Blancos were fighting for the LaLiga Santander title.

Before the trophy was eventually sealed and still with so much in play, Real Madrid announced they'd reached an agreement to sign David Beckham from Manchester United.

“La Liga is more important than Beckham,” Hierro echoed the sentiments of the Real Madrid dressing room, who didn't take the announcement well.

In the end, Hierro left on bitter terms when his contract expired, alongside head coach Vicente del Bosque.

The relationship between Florentino and Hierro took a new turn after a decade and he returned to the club in a coaching capacity in 2014.

Then, Luis Figo grew impatient after Perez extended the contracts of Ronaldo Nazario, Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos, and Raul.

 “The latest I've heard from my agent is that the club doesn't intend to extend my contract and I'll have to plan for my future in December,” Figo said on a pre-season tour of Asia in 2004.

Relegated to the bench in his final season with the club, the 32-year-old was allowed to leave for Inter on a free transfer.

Meanwhile, Keylor Navas was the most wanted goalkeeper around the globe after the fantastic display in Brazil, which left the legendary Iker Casillas in a bit unsecured situation.

With Navas an established first-team goalkeeper and the club after David de Gea, Casillas realized his time was up at Real Madrid in the summer of 2015.

The board tried to make his exit seamless but complications and disagreements over the goalkeeper's pay-off and future earnings at Porto meant exactly the opposite happened.

Real Madrid were due to pay Casillas 25 million euros in the final two years of his contract, which was 15 million more than had been agreed with Porto.

Problems with the Portuguese tax man also emerged, making the captain's departure from the Bernabeu a fairly tense one.

Casillas decided not to have any club officials or trophies present at his farewell press conference, during which he broke down in tears. But at present, he has returned to the club as an advisor, mending his relationship with Florentino and his other directors.

Here comes the big one – Cristiano Ronaldo.

Like with Ramos, Cristiano Ronaldo's contract extensions often caused headaches for those managing them within the club.

Having watched Lionel Messi renew his contract each year at Barcelona, the Portuguese star wanted the same from Florentino and Real Madrid.

After a tetchy first contract extension in 2013, Ronaldo renewed for another five years in 2016, though he would only fulfill two of them.

When Messi signed a new contract worth 50 million euros a year at the Camp Nou, Ronaldo thought he was being reasonable by asking for 30 million euros from Real Madrid. The club didn't match his demands.

When Ronaldo too had problems with the taxman, he felt disgruntled by the lack of support shown by his club. After winning the Champions League in 2018, he asked to leave.

Florentino agreed to sell the forward for anything over 100 million euros, with Juventus forcing him to keep to his promise.

But the relationship between Cristiano and Perez is very good at present.

From the above examples, one may feel that Ramos might not be a Los Blancos anymore because Perez always preferred the club over the cult of individual players.

What is the future of Ramos?

Will this be the end of the journey for Ramos in Real Madrid?

Marca says, “No, but this possibility grows with each passing day. Ramos believes that looking for a replacement, in the event of his possible departure, could prove costly for the club.”

“Hence, he is confident that Real Madrid will better their first renewal offer, while Los Blancos insist that their captain will not find a higher salary in the market.”

“There is no one apart from Florentino Perez and Ramos who can predict the player's future, but the reality is that one month has passed after the meeting between the two men and no agreement has been reached.”

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 30/01/2021 What is the future of Sergio Ramos?

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Faisal Caesar