Sergio Ramos leads €450m takeover bid for relegation-threatened Sevilla
Former Real Madrid and Spain defender Sergio Ramos is reportedly fronting a €450m takeover bid for his boyhood club Sevilla as the struggling Spanish giants search for their 15th manager in a decade amid a tense La Liga relegation battle.
The Andalusian side currently sit just three points above the drop zone with only nine league matches remaining.
Such a perilous league position has plunged the seven-time Europa League winners into genuine danger of a first relegation in a quarter of a century.
Managerial carousel continues
Current bookmaker favourite Luis Garcia Plaza is the leading candidate to inherit the dugout at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.
Whoever takes the helm will face a monumental task to unite a fractured fanbase and secure top-flight survival.
Meanwhile, intense speculation surrounds the club’s ownership structure as off-pitch dysfunction exacerbates their severe on-pitch struggles.
Prodigal son plots return
The 38-year-old World Cup winner is not in the running for the vacant managerial role, but is instead part of a heavily-backed consortium aiming to buy control of the institution.
Financial backers have supposedly armed the former Paris St-Germain centre-back with a massive war chest to steady the rapidly sinking ship.
His relationship with the radical Biri Biri ultras remains complicated following an acrimonious departure to the Spanish capital early in his career.
However, passionate supporters are reportedly growing desperate enough to welcome back their academy product if it means ending years of administrative incompetence.
Stark contrast with local rivals
The institutional crisis is felt even more acutely across the city following recent Copa del Rey success for bitter rivals Real Betis.
While the green-and-white half of the city celebrates, the red-and-white establishment must now desperately fight to protect their proud top-flight status.
