Venezuelan forward Erik Ramirez has returned to Dynamo Kyiv. The Venezuelan will play for the capital club under number 15, which became available after Viktor Tsygankov left the team.
Eric Ramirez (photo: Yuriev)Character and national team problems prevented Ramires from playing for Dinamo straight away
Erik Ramirez joined Dinamo in the summer of 2021 for €1.75m from Slovakian club DAK. The Venezuelan scored 17 goals in the Slovakian championship, so he got on the scouts' radar of stronger clubs. He was close to a move to Rubin. There was interest from Czech, Belgian and Dutch teams.
One of the candidates for the player was Kyiv Dynamo. Mircea Lucescu was impressed with Ramires' game. The forceful, hard-working Venezuelan suited perfectly to the vision of football of the experienced Romanian. The clubs agreed fairly quickly, and then the transfer was on the verge of collapse. Kyivians could not come to terms with Ramires and his agents. In the end, the sides reached a compromise. Ramires received 600 thousand euros a year. This was many times more than he had been earning before.
However, Ramirez did not pass the money test. Come expensive cars, expensive clothes, a rich lifestyle. The humble guy turned into a party boy. Jerson Rodriguez played an important role in this. The Dynamo legionnaires quickly found a common language. Gerson got the Kyiv newcomer addicted to not-so-good things. Football for Erik has become secondary, and such things are unacceptable for Lucescu.
Everyone hoped that after Gerson's departure something would change for Erik, but his head has already gone wild. He has never been able to fully concentrate on football. Despite an injury to Artem Besedin, the Latin American striker played just 7 games in all competitions in the first part of the season and scored one goal.
The second point is the Venezuelan national team. "Dinamo" signed a player who was absolutely not ready, having missed part of the training camp. Step by step he was brought to a good playing form. But everything ended with trips to the national team. It was all very long. In the first six months alone, Eric travelled to his national team four times. Transfers, a different climate and time zone. At the very least, preparation for the next match fell out. And there were also injuries, a two-week covid. And Ramires was constantly in a catch-up role. It was necessary to gain the conditions again. Of course, in this case, other players played.
That same Vitinho, who never went anywhere during international breaks, grew substantially over six months. Already in November, the Brazilian became a player in the starting line-up. If not for the war, he could have become one of the team leaders. The Brazilian has been working on himself while away to his national teams, undergoing adaptation. Ramires, on the other hand, was always on the road.
Ramires' final touch was his refusal to return to Kyiv after his holiday. Ramires wanted to stay at home and wait for the national team training camp to start, missing 10-14 days of preparation from Dynamo. Lucescu would not tolerate such an attitude, and the player began to look for a new team.
Last chance for a good career
Ramires is already 24 years old. Now his future fate will be decided: either he will play for the minor clubs in Europe, or he will get together and be able to play for Dynamo and have further career development.
The last two seasons for Eric were unsuccessful. First, he could not stay in Dynamo. Then unsuccessful rentals to Sporting Gijon and Slovan Bratislava. Although Ramires played 16 games this season and scored 4 points on goal+passes, the player had a conflict with his coach, Vladimir Weiss. Problems with his timely return from holiday began again. No one bothered with the wayward Venezuelan - over the winter, Slovan signed Ghanaian forward Malik Abubakari from Malmö, and Ramírez was shown the door. "Slovan are fighting for the league title with DAK, and Weiss has no time to work on Eric's rehabilitation. Therefore, a return to Kiev was the only real option to have playing practice in the spring.
With such a CV, there is no prospect of snagging a good option in Europe. Therefore, we need to prove our talents at Dynamo not to go out on loan again this summer. Now Ramires must show his mettle. Admit his mistakes. Only through his work will he be able to prove to Lucescu his ambitions.
Supryaga is the odd man out?
Erik has a chance to play for Dynamo. He can become one of the best players in the UPL. If Ramires pulls himself together, he will have his chance to become the main striker for Kyiv.
Lucescu said goodbye to two strikers - Artem Besedin and Vlad Kulach. The question of the main striker is still unresolved. During the winter training camp two Vladislavs - Supryaga and Vanat - did not particularly convinced that they are ready to play in the starting line-up. It is likely that Lucescu would have given each of them chances. Each would have had a stable playing practice. But now someone could be superfluous. Most likely it will be Supryaga, who is not used to fighting for a place in the squad.
Ramires' arrival allows us to restructure the game. For Eric knows how to wrestle with force, and his rivals do not have such qualities. Ramires is best suited for positional play. Therefore, now everything is in his hands again, and how he will use this chance will show the next Dynamo matches.
Sergiy TISHCHENKO
