Sevilla vice president Jose Maria del Nido has hailed the club's "prodigal son" Sergio Ramos for rejecting a huge offer from Saudi Arabia in order to return to his boyhood team.
Ramos came through Sevilla's youth system before making his La Liga debut for Los Nervionenses as a 17-year-old in 2004.
The defender made 39 league appearances for Sevilla before joining Real Madrid in a controversial €27 million move in 2005, going on to win five league titles and four Champions Leagues with Los Blancos.
After struggling with injuries during a two-year stint in Ligue 1 with Paris-Saint Germain, Ramos was heavily linked with a move to Al-Ittihad, where he could have been reunited with former Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema.
Despite reportedly being offered around €19m per year to join the Saudi champions, Ramos made an emotional return to Sevilla earlier this month, and Del Nido says the club will not forget the sacrifice he made.
Speaking at the Thinking Football Summit, Del Nido told Stats Perform: "We are very happy with Sergio's return.
"First and foremost, we have a great central defender that will help us achieve the objectives we have set for this season.
"He is a player who was raised in Utrera's youth academy, in Sevilla's youth academy, and he is a player who comes back home as a prodigal son.
"He is a player with a lot of media attention but the most important thing is the individual and team titles he has won.
"He is a player who has a worldwide impact. We are really happy for him to end as he started. We've signed a great football player and a player that is a Sevilla supporter."
Asked about Ramos rejecting a move to Saudi Arabia, Del Nino added: "Words are really beautiful and really simple to say, but in life, in the end, things are demonstrated with facts.
"The fact that Sergio has given up a lot of money to play for Sevilla shows the commitment he has, the desire he has, as he said, to hear the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan chant his name.
"He has shown it with a lot of effort. He waited until we had the money to bring him to the club, then he gave up two economic offers that multiplied the amount he was going to be paid at Sevilla.
"He has shown his commitment to the club and it is another reason for satisfaction. As we have said, we can only thank him for the effort he has made, among other things, at an economic level."
Ramos made his second Sevilla debut against Las Palmas on Sunday, 18 years and 20 days after playing his last league game for the club against Racing Santander in August 2005.
While Del Nido was delighted to see Ramos reject Al-Ittihad's advances, he believes the financial might of Saudi Pro League sides offers an opportunity for clubs like Sevilla to generate funds.
"We have seen a strong eruption of the Arab market," he said. "They say that clubs from this league invested €600m to €700m. One of the players was our goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou [who joined Al-Hilal].
"We are a club that sells to grow, so the fact there is another league that invests in good footballers is good for us.
"We have sold good players to Madrid, Barcelona, and clubs of different leagues with a higher economic magnitude than Sevilla and we have continued to compete.
"Now the key is to see if this league is prolonged in time and continues to inject money in Europe.
"It is true that a player who has earned x millions of euros there, more than what we can pay… that can cause you to not access these players.
"But the policy we have is to sell to grow. The more leagues invest in good footballers, and if they are from Sevilla, the better for us."
'We have a wonderful future' - De la Fuente delighted by Spain's youngsters
Luis de la Fuente has praised Spain's youngsters after they starred in the dramatic late win over Switzerland in the Nations League on Monday.
Bryan Zaragoza sealed the 3-2 victory with a stoppage-time penalty after the visitors had twice come from behind to level after Yeremy Pino and Bryan Gil's goals in Tenerife.
Spain dominated throughout the match, having 21 shots, 10 of which were on target, as they created 3.21 expected goals (xG) and rounded off an unbeaten group stage.
Excluding friendlies, the European champions are unbeaten in their 13 matches in 2024 in all competitions (W12 D1), setting the record for their most competitive matches without defeat in a single year, as well as their most wins.
La Roja will be one of the seeded teams in the Nations League quarter-finals in March after topping Group A4, and De la Fuente was particularly proud of how the next generation of players have performed in 2024.
"We are very happy. It is football like that, and we know the high level and equality that exists. We must value so many victories and, above all, the victory over a great team like Switzerland," De la Fuente said.
"Before, it was also a great team. The difference is that now we win, and we win everything. We are used to competing for the best and having great results. Without thinking about the past.
"I don't worry about it. I have always said that we have a magnificent present and a wonderful future, thanks to the great footballers that there are in Spain. They are the best in the world.
"They are very good. They are the best players. We know what they give, and we have to make them feel comfortable to show their football. The message gets through quickly, and we are privileged to have these players."
Historic win gives San Marino 'deserved' Nations League promotion, says Cevoli
San Marino head coach Roberto Cevoli says the team "deserve what they've managed to achieve" after they made history with their Nations League promotion.
San Marino, the world's bottom-ranked team, won their first away match in history as they beat Liechtenstein 3-1 in their final Nations League match on Monday.
It was just the third win in their history, with all of those victories coming against Liechtenstein, with their previous triumphs – a friendly in 2004 and a Nations League game in September – both 1-0 at home.
Aron Sele had given Liechtenstein the lead five minutes before half-time, but second-half goals from Lorenzo Lazzari, Nicola Nanni and Alessandro Golinucci secured the famous victory for the visitors.
"Finishing that first half 1-0 down was an insult to football, but the boys were brilliant and deserved what they've managed to achieve," said Cevoli.
Marco Tura, the president of San Marino's Football Federation, added: "These boys made history tonight.
"As people, as athletes, as men, they have shown what they are worth. I cried with the boys."
It is the first time San Marino scored more than once in a competitive game, while they had never scored three goals in any match before in their history.
The victory means they have gained promotion to Nations League C, after topping Group D1 with seven points.
Test cricket will 'die' without Australia, India and England efforts, warns Clark
Test cricket will "die" without regular meetings between Australia, India and England, former Aussie bowler Stuart Clark warned.
Australia face India in five Tests between 22 November and 7 January, with the first match set to begin in Perth later this week.
India will be looking to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after triumphing 2-1 on home soil in the teams' last series in 2022-23.
But Clark, who represented Australia between 2006 and 2009, believes the upcoming series has even greater significance due to the growing popularity of short-form and franchise cricket.
Speaking exclusively to Stats Perform, the former bowler warned the traditional format needs competitive meetings between Australia, India and England to maintain fan interest.
"If you compare to what we've just seen with this one-day series, people are still pretty interested in Australia – or at least in England and India – about Test cricket," he said.
"But there's a bigger story around Test cricket in that the international summer is only important to those three countries, whereas a lot of these other countries around the world, they're actually funded by their T20 tournaments, that's where they make their money.
"Whereas Australia, England, India it's in reverse. I think for the the greater good of the game, Australia, India and England need to really try and promote Test cricket and that's the biggest story to all of this.
"You know the Ashes will always exist because there's such a big rivalry and they want to beat Australia.
"But the bigger problem is what happens if India or Australia become weak and don't want to play one another? Or England become weak and don't want to play India?"
With Australia set to host the next Ashes series in 2025-26, Clark is aware of the need for Pat Cummins' team to test themselves against top-calibre opposition.
"If Test cricket doesn't remain the priority for those countries, then test cricket really dies. That's what no one wants to see, and the players are pretty adamant about that as well," he continued.
"Look at South Africa, look at West Indies. This series out here against India is a really big series, as it should be.
"Hopefully it's competitive and hopefully Australia win, but what we want it to be is competitive to try and grow that game.
"It's such an important series. These next two summers really set the tone for the following two summers, which are usually pretty dour."
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