Ramirez: “I’m improving at Samp and still dream of the World Cup”

Gaston Ramirez is in a good place. The Uruguayan is loving life at Sampdoria, where he has relaunched his career, and is now dreaming of a plane ticket to Russia in the summer for World Cup 2018.

“I needed to find the right club to regain my confidence and continue improving – my family and I were delighted to come back to Italy,” he said, speaking to Premium Sport. “I’m working hard to be in with a chance of going to the World Cup with Uruguay as that would be a dream come true.”

Ramirez has enjoyed an impressive start to the season, capped with the opening goal against Genoa in the Derby della Lanterna on Saturday.

“I love scoring goals and I’d like to get one every time I play, but I have to admit that it was amazing to score my first Samp goal in the derby,” admitted Ramirez.

“I settled in to the team’s way of playing straight away and I want to thank my team-mates and the coach for their faith in me. What we need to do now is to work hard – it’s important we focus on doing that, without thinking about anything else. We need to focus on where we can improve every day, then we’ll see where we are at the end of the season.”

Samp’s home form has been crucial to their early form, with Doria taking a maximum 18 points from their first six home matches of the season.

“It’s important to win at home because loads of fans come to see us at the stadium,” acknowledged Ramirez. “That said, we’re also doing well on the road – we’ve produced some good performances away from Marassi too and that’s vital if we’re going to keep getting better game by game.”

Ramirez also believes Samp can cause Juventus problems when the champions visit Liguria after the international break.

“We believe in ourselves,” he said. “We know how much quality they have but we’ll be looking to match them with our performance.”