Florentino Perez has revealed that Sergio Ramos asked to leave Real Madrid on a free transfer due to a generous off in the Chinese Super League.
Perez shot the idea down in a pretty obvious move, as the 33-year-old captain would still garner a pretty glorious transfer fee even at his advanced age.
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Ramos allegedly told Perez that the CSL team was unable to offer a transfer fee due to league constraints.
“What was I going to tell him? We said this couldn’t happen but we’d speak to the club to satisfy him but that Real Madrid could not afford to let its captain leave for free as that would set a terrible precedent for other players,” Perez said, via Sky Sports.
The dominant but ever-controversial defender has been with Real since 2005, when he arrived from Sevilla. Reports say he wants a clean break from Real due to backlash from his suspension for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League Final versus Ajax.
That, by the way, could easily be placed on Real’s poor depth at center back.
Ramos remains the captain of the Spanish national team, his 163 caps four shy of Iker Casillas’ record.
Transfermarkt pegs Ramos’ value at around $37 million. Would Perez be willing to accept something in that neighborhood for his captain, or would he reach for much more?
And, given Perez’s sensational nature, could he just be exaggerating the issue or creating it out of whole cloth?
