A little over a month into the 2019 Chinese Super League season, former Chelsea midfielder Ramires is nowhere to be seen. In fact, the 32-year-old has not played since May of last year, and has been demoted to the B-team since July. He’s still registered as one of the four foreign players for Jiangsu Suning, but he’s not in a happy place.
Ramires and his representatives have been working for almost a year to get him out of there and either back to Europe or Brazil. After a move to Benfica, the club who brought him over from Brazil in 2009, was blocked by Jiangsu last summer, Ramires has had to bide his time. But with his contract running out this year, perhaps there’s hope on the horizon.
According to UOL and ESPN Brasil journalist Mauro Cezar Pereira, Flamengo are preparing a bid to take the ‘Blue Kenyan’ back home to Brazil.
Tem post novo no blog:
— Mauro Cezar (@maurocezar) April 15, 2019
Flamengo prepara proposta por Ramires, ex-Chelsea https://t.co/hpDzr7DPXC via @UOLEsporte @UOL
Flamengo are apparently trying to work a deal for Ramires without having to pay any termination fees, though that would require Jiangsu to agree to terminate the contract as per a mutual agreement. Cezar likens the situation to that of Diego’s, who extricated himself from an unhappy situation at Fenerbahce in 2016 in a similar fashion.
Either way, Ramires has welcomed the interest and is obviously hoping that things work out. He still has a few good years left in his playing career, surely, but there’s no time to lose!
“My managers are always open to hear offers from teams that are interested in me. Flamengo’s board already talked with them a few times to know about my conditions. And if they are still interested, they should get in touch again.”
-Ramires; source: Fox Sports
Good luck, Rami!