Sergio Ramos is determined to leave Real Madrid and join Manchester United this summer, according to sources close to the player.

Ramos has been informed by Real Madrid that they received a formal bid from United valued at £28.5m (€40m) and that he has told the club he wants to leave this summer. The 29-year-old also informed Real that he is only interested in joining United, despite interest from Manchester City, according to Sky Sports.

United are determined to sign Ramos and made a bid prior to the player meeting the Madrid chief executive, José Ángel Sánchez, last week. The Spanish club continued to say they had not yet any offers. There has been no follow up bid thus far.

During the meeting, held at the club’s Valdebebas headquarters, Ramos confirmed to Madrid that he intended to leave and asked them to listen to offers.

A conversation with the club’s president, Florentino Pérez, followed but there has been no reconciliation. Neither the player nor the club have made any public statement.

Madrid did not adopt the standard response, which is to insist that the player would only leave if United met the full value of his buy-out clause which stands at €180m, but they do value him prohibitively high, setting the price close to €100m. United are determined to use David de Gea as leverage and are prepared to prevent the Spanish goalkeeper from leaving this summer.

Ramos has two years remaining on his contract but negotiations for a renewal have reached a stalemate. He earns around €6m a year, but this is not just a tactic designed to draw a better offer from Madrid. The relationship between Madrid and the player’s camp is extremely tense and although it is impossible to predict how this will end, Ramos’s determination to leave is real.

Guardian Service