AFP, Madrid :
Sergio Ramos returned for Real Madrid on Saturday but the bigger question is whether he is back for good.
After two months out with a knee injury, Ramos played an hour in Madrid’s win over Elche, with the plan to blow away the cobwebs ready for a start against Atalanta in the second leg of the Champions League today.
His availability should be a significant boost for Madrid, who have a 1-0 advantage from last month’s first leg in Italy and will be confident of being Spain’s first, and perhaps only, survivor in the tournament’s quarter-finals.
And yet Ramos’s reemergence has been pinpointed less as a boost to his team than a bolstering of his case to stay, every week he was absent another blow to his hope for a contract extension beyond the summer.
Madrid president Florentino Perez has reportedly offered Ramos a two-year deal with a 10 per cent pay cut or a second option, the continuation of his current wages but for only one more year. Ramos wants two more years on the same wages, with the possibility to add a third.
“There is a lot of uncertainty,” Ramos said on Thursday.
“I would like to be able to say something but there is nothing new. I’m only thinking about coming back from injury and to finish the season in the best possible way. There is nothing new about the renewal.”
Ramos’ pedigree is not in doubt given he is probably the greatest defender of the modern era, certainly the most successful, and while there have been lapses in recent years, his contribution to Real Madrid is still considerable.
When they marched to the La Liga title last season, Ramos was their most important player.
“I hope the Ramos thing will be fixed as soon as possible,” Zinedine Zidane said last week.
But he also turns 35 at the end of this month and a parting this summer would offer immediate relief for a club now seeking financial recovery.
Real Madrid’s revenue last season fell by almost 50 million euros, a figure that is expected to worsen again for the current season, when the absence of fans will have lasted an entire campaign.
There has been a political tension too between Ramos and Perez, a power battle that has erupted in moments of crisis. Neither will want to lose face in this fight.
But perhaps most importantly, Real Madrid find themselves again facing a question of how to evolve, of where the balance lies between retaining current stars and making space for new blood.
