For a moment, Gastón Ramírez looks puzzled, then understanding dawns. “Ah, Frigorífico Anglo,” says Middlesbrough’s Uruguay playmaker, smiling broadly.
He has just been asked about the famous meat products bearing the name of his home town, Fray Bentos, which once led it to be dubbed “the kitchen of the world”. With production of corned beef, steak and kidney pies et al long since shifted to Europe, the old factory is now a Unesco world heritage site.
“It’s because it was so important in the second world war,” says Ramírez, explaining that Allied troops were fuelled by Fray Bentos products. “I prefer to cook my own food, fresh, at home so I’ve never tried it but the tins are in shops in England. When I played at Southampton people there showed me them and I saw some in the supermarket here – it was strange.”
Sub-equatorial Fray Bentos, surrounded by fertile pampas and abundant palm trees, is said to retain the feel of a place belonging in a Graham Greene novel. Nestling on the border with Argentina, it is the type of town where humid evenings unfold against a soundtrack of cicadas and the pace of life is deceptively languid.
Teesside’s lack of similar exoticism must have come as quite a culture shock yet Ramírez, much as he misses idyllic days spent fishing from the banks of the Uruguay river, explains he would be happy to see his nine-month-old daughter grow up in his new habitat.
“I like England, the quality of life and the security,” he says, gesturing at the window and its view of the tranquil, undulating parkland surrounding Middlesbrough’s attractive training ground near Darlington. “You have to adapt but I like it here.
“Being at the Boro is like being part of a family; you feel at home and that’s very important. When I signed in the summer [a long-term, free transfer deal following last January’s loan from Southampton] I had a feeling I was in the right place. I’m enjoying it here.”
His neighbours in a pretty, quiet County Durham village have become accustomed to seeing smoke rising from the Ramírez family’s back garden in all weathers. “Sometimes we go to Newcastle to eat out but, mostly, I like to cook at home,” says the 25-year-old in impressively fluent English. “I like to have barbecues.” But surely not at this time of year? He appears amused. “It doesn’t matter about the weather. English people don’t like to do barbecues when it rains but, for us, it’s not a problem.”
The player Aitor Karanka entrusts with the key No10 role in Boro’s hallmark 4-2-3-1 formation is such a keen cook that he sometimes assists the Uruguay squad chef when Luis Suárez and company chew on their nation’s beloved steaks during regular barbecue evenings.
“At Copa América this summer I helped him out a couple of times,” says Ramírez, laughing at suggestions that Suárez must relish getting his teeth into the resultant grilled meats, before turning serious and launching into an ode to the Barcelona striker. “Luis is fantastic,” he stresses. “Every time he touches the ball he sets up a chance to score. It’s amazing. I’ve learned a lot from him.
“Luis and I drink Mate [South American tea] together every day before and after training. He’s a very nice guy – he’s actually a quiet person. The Uruguay players have group chats on WhatsApp so we’re always in touch, always congratulating him when he scores a goal in Spain – that’s a lot of times.
“But Uruguay is not just Suárez, it’s Cavani, Godín, Giménez, big players who play for big teams. We’re doing really well in our World Cup qualification group. We’re second [behind Brazil] in a strong group [also featuring Argentina]. Everyone wants to fight for the team.”
Ramírez is less keen to analyse a disappointing, group-stage Copa América exit but is adamant that the tournament failed to reflect the “real Uruguay” in much the same way that Boro’s slow-burn start to Premier League life does not mirror the team’s true potential. Their only post-promotion victory came at Sunderland in August but, after a few slightly iffy performances, Ramírez was back to his elegant, subtly incisive, intelligent best during last Saturday’s encouraging 0-0 draw at Arsenal.
Bournemouth’s visit on Saturday offers Boro a chance to win a first home game since April and he agrees they “definitely need” to seize this opportunity. “The fans are paying good money to watch us and I want to make them happy,” he says. “I’m trying to show them how good I am.”
Karanka is not alone in observing that “when Gastón plays well, it makes a big difference to us” but acknowledges he has never quite fulfilled the hype which accompanied his £12m move from Bologna to Southampton four years ago. If part of that is down to injuries – the scars tracing down Ramírez’s legs, one or two particularly vivid, bear testament to some lengthy stints in the treatment room – it does not represent the full story.
“The first six months at Southampton I felt I did well but then I never got the chances,” he says. “If you have chances to play and don’t perform you’re like: ‘OK, it’s my fault’ but it’s frustrating to not be able to show how good you are.”
Signed by Nigel Adkins, his star waned under Adkins’s successors, Mauricio Pochettino – “a really good manager, very similar to Aitor” – and, especially, Ronald Koeman, who loaned him to Hull City, where he failed to prevent relegation in 2015. “Hull was a very hard year because of my injury – I had a bad pelvis,” he says. “I was training and playing with pain the whole time. It wasn’t good.”
Southampton fans may have a low opinion of the left-footed trequartista, whose 55 appearances for the club are calculated to have cost £8,000 for every minute he spent on the field, but their side’s trademark tactic of pressing high up the pitch appeared alien to his much more considered game.
Everything changed when Karanka threw out a lifeline which not only recast Ramírez as a key reason why Boro won promotion last spring but has left him living close to a golf course.
“Although we’re not known for it in Uruguay, I’ve taken up golf,” he says. “I’m not so good but it’s a tough course. In Fray Bentos I like to fish – it’s a small place with not much to do – but, here, I play golf.”
And barbecue in winter.
