The incredible reason Ramsdale had a bizarre item with him at Arsenal signing
Robin Bairner
- 21 Aug 2021 13:14 BST
- 3 min read
New Arsenal signing Aaron Ramsdale took an incredible item with him as he signed his deal with the Premier League giants.
Ramsdale completed a £24 million move from Championship team Sheffield United to Arsenal on Friday, signing a four-year contract with the option of an additional one with the Emirates club.
When he was penning the deal, though, he had with him the ashes of his grandfather.
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'It was a nice touch'
“The day my mum found out she was pregnant with me was the day he died,” he said. “He was called Ron and was from Bloxwich in Birmingham and they used to say ‘oh, we’re going to see our Ron’. So I’m Aaron for ‘our Ron’. When his ashes were spread my dad kept some of his ashes.
“He’s gone on a little tour of the 92 [teams in the Football League]! My dad brings him all to the games and will have a picture with him in the stadiums.
“I did say in the car this morning that he wasn’t coming out but it was a nice touch… he would have been a footballer if his dad had allowed him and he was a goalkeeper so there are little connections between us both.
“My dad takes him everywhere. It keeps him close to his heart.”
Ramsdale is expected to compete with Bernd Leno for the No.1 spot at Arsenal and could even force the German out of the club next summer.
He could potentially be in the Arsenal squad for Sunday’s fixture against Chelsea, though that is subject to all the formalities of the deal being completed in sufficient time. In any case, it is likely that Leno starts the Emirates fixture with Ramsdale on the bench as a best-case scenario for Mikel Arteta’s side.
