Real Madrid fired Casemiro this morning at an institutional event in the Valdebebas sports city in which president Florentino Pérez thanked the player for his nine seasons at the club. The Brazilian spoke at a press conference and assured that the decision to leave the Bernabeu was not made because of the offer from Manchester United: “Since the Champions League final (in Paris, against Liverpool) I felt that my time at Madrid It was over. I needed new challenges.”
The 30-year-old player denied that he is leaving Madrid for a pecuniary matter. Madrid pays him just over five million net per season and at United he will earn close to 13 million per year (in addition to increasing the years of his contract from three to four). “The people who can think that is that they don’t know me. If it was for money I could have left four years ago. It’s the last thing I would think about,” he said.
Later, Casemiro insisted on the same thing: “At the end of the Champions League final I had the feeling that my cycle here was over. I’m honest. After the holidays, with a clear head, the feeling was the same. quickly. I already spoke with the club as soon as the Champions League finished. It was very difficult to speak with the president, but I was always honest with him”.
Asked what he is looking for in Manchester United, a club that has been in crisis for years and that this season is not playing in the Champions League, Casemiro commented: “I am looking for new challenges in a new club, in another country, another culture. I arrive with all the illusion of world. United is the most important club in England. One of the few that can compete with the greatness of Madrid. Here I have won everything and nothing there. I want to contribute what I have contributed here”.
In his speech thanking the player, Florentino Pérez stressed that what he remembers most about Casemiro is his 20 minutes in Dortmund, when he made his Champions League debut in a match in which Madrid lost the tie against Borussia. (He had won 3-0 at the Bernabeu and lost 2-0 there. Casemiro’s entry changed the fate of the tie). Casemiro smiled when he remembered it: “I’m leaving with my duty fulfilled. When I left Sao Paulo in January 2013 I told myself that I was going to give everything for this club. I’ve tried. When I sleep, I sleep peacefully because I’ve given everything , in training and in all the games. I’ll stick with the last Champions League, because it was magical, but also with the happiness of getting up every day to go to training.”
Casemiro believes that his replacement at Madrid is assured: “Madrid signs the best. With Fede Valverde we have a player for the next twelve years. He can play like five. Camavinga can also be a great player, he is already very important. Tchouaméni He knows a lot of people in this club, he is a starter for France, where there are a billion players… Madrid will continue to win. It will always do so regardless of the players who are there because it is the identity of this club”.
The player said that it has also cost him to say goodbye to Modric and Kroos, with whom he has formed the starting midfield since September 2015. And he told an anecdote about Kroos. “Kroos sent me a WhatsApp message at four in the morning on Friday to ask me if he was leaving. I replied that what was he doing awake at that hour?”
Florentino Pérez described Casemiro as one of the club’s great myths. “I never believed that this moment would come now. I remember when you told me as a newcomer here that you only asked to play five games to show your quality, and it wasn’t five, it was 336 that you have played with 18 titles. You have been exemplary every day of these years and also in your farewell. You have earned the right to decide your future and we must respect it,” he said in his speech.
Casemiro had a prepared speech but the emotion made him put aside his papers and speak through tears: “The most beautiful thing about this club is the youth academy. I came to play for the first team but I had to play for Castilla, where I learned the values of this club, which is what I will take to Manchester. I want to make it clear that one day I will return to repay the love they have given me. To continue helping this club”. Madrid gave Casemiro the gold and diamond badge.
The player, who commented that he has not spoken with Cristiano, with whom he will coincide at Old Trafford for the time being, assured that he still has some time left: “I am in the best moment of my career. In the final of the European Super Cup ( was chosen MVP) I showed the type of person I am”.
