“I’ll get rid of you” — The fight between Florentino Perez and Sergio Ramos that terminated the defender’s Real Madrid career
Two weekends ago, Real Madrid great Sergio Ramos made his first-ever player return to the Santiago Bernabeu with Sevilla. Considering his prominence in the Spanish city, his reaction was oddly subdued. Not only did the fans not show much appreciation, but the club also offered none.
Ramos, 37, departed Los Blancos on a free agent three years ago after refusing to sign a one-year contract extension offered by Real Madrid because he believed he should have been given a lengthier term. Before returning to La Liga, he played for Paris Saint-Germain for the following two seasons. However, he was sidelined when Real Madrid defeated the French powerhouses in the Champions League due to injury.
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According to Relevo, it was a shocking exit in the European Cup that finally put his departure in motion. In the locker room following their 5-3 aggregate loss to Ajax in 2019, which resulted in a 4-1 humiliation at Santiago Bernabeu, Ramos got into a heated argument with President Florentino Perez.
Ramos received a yellow card in the first leg, which he later disputed being related to his first admission that he did so in order to serve the suspension while they were up in the home match. That implied that Ramos was present for the second leg, looking on helplessly from a box. At 3:00, the cameras of his documentary that was being filmed were turned off.
After the game, Perez waited for the players in the locker room, criticizing their “embarassing” behavior, until Ramos and Perez got into a furious fight. Ramos retaliated, saying that “the planning has been embarrassing” in front of the players and the rest of the staff at Los Blancos, who had started the season under Julen Lopetegui before hiring Santiago Solari. Perez shot back, saying, “I’ll get rid of you.”
“Excellent. I’ll leave after you pay me. For this badge, for this club, and even for you, I have sacrificed everything I had and destroyed my balls.
After that, things never quite got back to normal, and two seasons later, Ramos was really fired by the team when his contract ran out. Solari was fired six days after Ajax’s loss. He’d said, “I’m sorry,” to Perez, who had replaced him with Zinedine Zidane and answered, “I’m the one who’s sorry.”
