Real Madrid icon Guti talked Sergio Ramos towards move abroad

New Sevilla signing Sergio Ramos was in fact close to going to Turkey, as was reported in the final days of the transfer market. Former Besiktas Vice-President Serhan Cetinsaya, who has since resigned, gave a press conference on the matter.

Ramos, 37, returned to Sevilla after the transfer window had closed, following a surprise call from Sporting Director Victor Orta. All summer long Sevilla had been publicly adamant they would not sign Ramos, but ended up drafting him in. It is thought that he will be earning a gross salary of around €2m per annum.

However Cetinsaya told Diario AS that he had much more lucrative offers elsewhere.

“We worked hard to close the transfer of Ramos. We had an agreement, but it didn’t happen. As a Besiktas fan, I would have loved to see it. We negotiated for 18 or 19 days. The money was secondary. Ramos received another offer of €27m net, but he did not even consider it.”

Real Madrid icon Guti, who shared a dressing room with Ramos, also had a part to play, explaining what it was like to play for Besiktas. Guti spent a season in Istanbul after leaving Real Madrid in 2010, before then retiring.

“Guti spoke to Ramos on our behalf. He was an exceptional reference. On Monday afternoon, August 21, we received the response ‘Congratulations to Besiktas’ for the transfer. Ramos gave us the green light. We even talked about bonuses to his agent. We prepared the contracts through our lawyers and sent them over. They invited us to their house in Madrid to carry out the remaining procedures and bring Ramos to Turkey. We discussed for a long time how much money we would pay if he had scored more than 25 goals. He asked for a large amount of money because he believed he would score 25 goals.”

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