Christian Ramirez has revealed Aberdeen TOLD him to go home and miss the final two games of last season and went as far as booking his flights for him, while also admitting it hurt to be stripped of the No.9 shirt in the summer.
The American striker was one of the few bright sparks of the Stephen Glass era as he notched double figures in his first six months but tailed off after Jim Goodwin was appointed. He prompted fan fury when he was posted missing for the final two games of the 2021/22 season and returned home to the US.
But the Columbus Crew striker, who has two goals in two games since returning to MLS, says all wasn't as it seemed. Speaking to the Red Tinted Glasses Podcast, he said: "People just act like I got up and left, when that was never the case. After the game against Hibernian where I came on as a sub, I got a call the day after from the manager that I would not be in the squad for the next two games because we were safe and that I could go home.
"When I asked him why he said that he wanted to give minutes to other guys who were fighting for a new contract and to young players who were coming through. The club booked my plane tickets home, but I didn't expect to get the negative backlash I received.
And responding to the fan backlash, he said: "I understand why the fans were frustrated with what happened, and that's why I wish I maybe could have spoken out on it, but when I had spoken about other things it had been taken out of context.
"The last thing I wanted to do in those last two weeks would have been to take the focus away from the guys who were making their debuts. But hopefully after hearing my side of the story people will realise that maybe they were in the wrong."
Ramirez was replaced by Bojan Miovski in the summer who was handed the No.9 shirt despite that number being occupied by Ramirez at the time. The American took the No.99 for his final few months and he added: "I was bothered about the way it happened. I had never seen anything like it before, but I could see his side of it.
"He (Goodwin) probably didn't expect me to stay at the club last summer, so he had probably offered it to Bojan when they had discussed him coming to Aberdeen. As a professional I do think it could have been handled a bit better, as it was not like I was a young kid who was wearing number nine."
READ NEXT
