Former Chelsea midfielder, Ramires, has revealed reasons behind his move to China, claiming that it wasn’t strictly for financial reasons.
Ramires spent five years at Chelsea after joining from Portugal giants, Benfica in 2010, before signing a four-year contract at Chinese Super League side, Jiangsu Suning in a £25 million move.
Debunking that the new deal is ultimately for financial gain, Ramires told Goal, “I see a lot of people saying that I came to China just for the money, but that’s not true.
“If you look at the situation I was going through at Chelsea at the time of the transfer you will see that I was [Guus] Hiddink’s last option in my position and this was frustrating me a lot.
“The situation was only getting worse and at that moment came the interest of the Chinese club.
“Jiangsu introduced me to a long-term project where I would be a key player, they offered me everything I could think of and more, and I decided together with my agent and family that this would be the best decision.
“The money issue weighed on the decision, I put it on the scale that I am already 29 years old and that an irrefutable opportunity like this may never come again. But the way things were happening at Chelsea was the main reason.”
The midfielder scored 37 goals in 246 games for the Blues, and said his effort against Barcelona was his favourite.
He added, “I cannot deny that the special moment for me was when I scored the goal over Valdes on Camp Nou in the semi-finals of Champions League.”
“The importance of that moment was so great that people asked me to talk about the goal and did not ask for the title. It was something magical that was internalized in my memory and in the memory of every fan of Chelsea.
“I’ve had a lot of friends at Chelsea, it’s hard to talk about one or the other. It was a very good group to work with and I miss them all, especially Willian, Kenedy and Diego Costa, who were the ones who had the most friendship out of the field recently.”
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