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| Welsh football star Aaron Ramsey |
Aaron Ramsey has completed a return to his boyhood club Cardiff City — with his son signing a contract at the club’s academy on the same day.
Ramsey’s contract at French club Nice expired earlier this summer, but the 32-year-old has now signed a two-year-deal at the Welsh club where he started his professional career 16 years ago.
Ramsey’s seven-year-old son, Sonny, signed a contract alongside his father, who admitted he “owed so much” to the Championship side.
“It feels unbelievable to finally be back here,” Ramsey said. “I always thought one day I’d come back, and now it’s the perfect time to do that.
“To be back with my family and around familiar faces is just brilliant, so I’m delighted to be back here now. I’ve missed that a lot in the last year or so, so it was important for me to be back around them.
“Obviously I’m a Cardiff City fan and watching them over the years since I’ve been away, we’ve had some low points but some big highs as well, being in the Premier League and representing Cardiff on the big stage. That’s a target of mine — to try and help my team-mates and this club to get back to the top.
“I owe so much to Cardiff, to the fans, to everybody who has been at the club when I was here as a young boy coming through. For me now to come full circle, to be part of this team now, and hopefully achieve the goals we want, there’s no better feeling than that.”
Ramsey came through Cardiff’s youth academy, becoming the club’s youngest player in April 2007 when he made his first-team debut aged just 16 years and 123 days.
He went on to make 28 first-team appearances before moving in 2008 to Arsenal, where he would spend the next 11 years.
The midfielder, who briefly returned to South Wales on loan in February 2011, also had spells at Juventus and Rangers before joining Nice in the summer of 2022. He made 34 appearances last season, scoring one goal and proving three assists.