The delirious last hours before the signing of Sergio Ramos for Real Madrid: "We were walking around to deliver the check over the horn"

At 23 hours and 47 minutes on August 31, 2005, René Ramos, Sergio's brother, and Pedro Bravo, the footballer's representative, gave Manuel García Gurruchaga, head of Competitions for the Professional Football League, a check for 27 million of euros in the name of Sevilla Fútbol Club. At that exact time, thirteen minutes before the summer market closed, Sergio Ramos paid his termination clause to leave Nervión and sign for Real Madrid. Tonight, almost two decades after becoming Florentino Pérez's first Spanish galactico, the Camas defender will return to the Santiago Bernabéu to face Real Madrid for the first time since he said goodbye to the white team on June 17, 2021.

He will do so with a tribute from the fans whom he once captained, whose life changed with a header in Lisbon and to whom he had to say goodbye almost three years ago after having “expired”, according to him, the offer of renewal that the Madrid board had put on the table. He left Chamartín and went to PSG, where he was never the same again, he lost his place in the national team and now, at 37 years old, he is trying to recover the time and the lost relationship with Sevilla and Pizjuán. The same stands that swore eternal hatred towards him on August 31, 2005, when at 19 years old and after a year as a starter he accepted Madrid's offer in a delirious last week of the market.

“My job was to get him out of Sevilla because we believed he was up to it,” Pedro Bravo, his representative, recalls to EL MUNDO.. And the calls started to fly. “I remember talking to Milan's sporting director, Ariedo Braida, who told me: 'When I'm worth 50 million, call me.'. I replied: 'If you don't sign it now, you'll never sign it.'. So it was”.

Del Nido's refusal

When Madrid came into play, the wishes of the footballer and those around him began to become clearer.. The big problem for Pedro Bravo and René Ramos, the young player's main influence, was José María Del Nido, president of Sevilla.. The manager did not want to let a youth player escape, much less to the white team and even less for a figure different from his termination clause, and neither did Monchi, architect of the squad that a few years later would lift several Europa Leagues.. There Bravo appeared again: «One day, we were in Del Nido's office, the president, Monchi and I. And I said to Monchi: 'How do you think you can make a better team? With Ramos and without 27 million or without Ramos and with the 27 million?'. Your answer helped. Del Nido was reluctant, but at that time 27 million for a player who had barely been in the League for a year was outrageous.. But despite that, it was very hard. At some moments it seemed that it was not done.

The “joking” with the white suit

The signing took on documentary overtones when the Spanish team gathered in Las Rozas to play a friendly and a qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup.. Ramos landed in the sports city of the national team with an outfit that is still remembered today: white suit, large black glasses, immaculate straight hair…. «I remember a lot of fun with the suit. The veterans were a little hesitant about him, but he took it on very well,” recalls a Federation worker.. In that locker room was, among others, Carlos Marchena. «Sergio is Sergio. It is as it is and always has been. That personality is what makes him different from the rest and is what has led him to win everything he has won,” the former player explains to this newspaper.

The pressure that Ramos tried to apply with the white suit did not have much effect at first, because Del Nido continued to reject the 22 million that Madrid was putting on the table at that time. It was Monday, August 29, there were 48 hours left until the market closed and everyone around the footballers was starting to get very nervous. The media situation in Nervión was irreducible. «That day the 29th was very hard because it seemed that the signing was not going to happen. His whole family was crying in a hotel,” says Bravo. On the 30th, nothing changed. «I tried until the end. And on the 30th I went to bed again thinking that it wasn't going to be done,” he adds.

On the 31st, however, everything changed. The meetings in Chamartín between Florentino Pérez and José Ángel Sánchez resulted in the final decision: Madrid was going to pay the clause. The white team had just lost the League by four points against Barça, in the summer Walter Samuel had gone to Inter and between Woodgate, Helguera and Pavón it was considered that the center of the defense was very weak. Going for a Ramos already consolidated in the First Division and in the national team sounded logical.

The petition to Luis Aragonés

The departure of Michael Owen to Newcastle accelerated the signing of the Andalusian in the last hours of the market. «In the morning, I was in Seville and suddenly they called me from Madrid: 'Where are you? Come here!'. And there I stood. “Everything was going to close,” recalls Bravo.. «I went to the Bernabéu and we closed the signing, but there were still the signatures and handing over the check to the League. “I called Luis Aragonés, who at that time was the coach, to ask permission to enter Las Rozas and for Sergio to sign the contract, and at night we had it.”

The clause remained to be made effective in the League. «It was René and I. And we were circling the League building to arrive at the horn, we wanted the signing to have an impact. We had the check for 27 million and everything was very controlled. With less than half an hour left, we went up to the League, deposited the check, signed the agreement with the head of registration and left.. “It was exactly at 11:47 p.m. on August 31.”

The signing, logically, was a before and after for Ramos and his family. The Camas defender went from living in a rented apartment to buying, at the age of 21, Ronaldo Nazario's house in La Moraleja when he left Madrid, in January 2007.. The rest, you already know: fourth player with the most appearances in Madrid's history (671), five Leagues, two Cups, four Champions Leagues…. Statistics that force the Bernabéu to pay him a tribute tonight that is more passionate than institutional. There will be a giant banner from the stands and a standing ovation, but nothing at club level. His early departure to PSG left him with 22 titles, three less than Benzema or Marcelo, two less than Nacho and Modric and one less than Gento.