Ramos won’t return to Sevilla

Defender discards possibility of joining former club after saying farewell to Real Madrid

MADRID:

On the day of his tearful farewell to Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos said Sevilla is "the other club of my heart, the club of my life" while discarding the possibility of returning.

Ramos bid an emotional farewell to Real on Thursday after failing to agree an extension to his contract. It marked the end of 16 years which brought 22 titles and the status of one of the club's greatest players.

Before the glamour of the Santiago Bernabeu and the prestige of making his debut for Sevilla, Ramos started at his home-town side of Camas, just across the Guadalquivir river, on a pitch where now there is only dirt and wild flowers.

"When he was three or four years old, he was already kicking balls out on the pitch," says the former Camas club president Juan Luis Angulo, whose cousin, Eloy Angulo, coached Ramos when he was six years old.

Eloy still calls Ramos "my Sergio" and after training him at Camas, he continued to work with the talented youngster even after the player joined Sevilla's academy aged 12.

Eloy made Ramos run over mounds of mud "so that he would gain strength" and gave him exercises to improve his technique.

"I forbid him from passing the ball long because that was where he could make mistakes," says Eloy, who at 65 is still coaching children. "I told him, 'you're young, play the safe pass so that you get picked every Sunday! When you're rich, you can play long passes."

Eloy was president of Camas during the nineties and in his living room at home, he still has a Ramos file from the 1995-96 season.

He has only one regret that he lost contact with his former disciple as Ramos grew into a global superstar with more than 44 million followers on Instagram.

Spain's former captain is rarely seen in his home town. If he returns it is more often to the horse farm that he owns nearby, in Bollullos de la Mitacion, where he likes to go with family and friends.