Sevilla look set to sign Sergio Ramos 18 years after he left the club for Real Madrid, and while he has had his tiffs with the Sevillista support, they will not be able to argue he hasn’t made sacrifices to be there.
Ramos, 37, has had a number of run-ins with Sevilla fans while at Real Madrid, famously celebrating a brace at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in the face of insults and objects being launched at him. That resulted in a partial stadium ban for Sevilla.
However Ramos said he was ‘in debt’ to Sevilla on arrival back in Andalusia, and certainly he has made up for some of that by pardoning many millions in order to head back to Nervion.
According to MD, had Ramos accepted the offer on the table from Galatasaray, he would have made €11m this year. Had he accepted the proposal from Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, then he would have been in for €20m per season. At Sevilla, he will earn a little over €2m per season, a remarkable 90% less than he would in the Middle East.
Ramos’ return makes for a fascinating storyline both on and off the pitch. It is not yet clear how he will be received by the Sevilla hardcore, or if he will be foregiven for some of the previous ills he committed. Equally on the pitch, Ramos is not an immediate fit for Jose Luis Mendilibar’s high line, and he will be competing with six other options in central defence.
