United's written offer is understood to be around £35million and came as Ramos met with Real Madrid officials on Wednesday morning and reaffirmed his decision to leave the club.
Madrid chief executive Jose Angel Sanchez sat down with the player and his brother and agent Rene Ramos at the club's Valdebebas training ground but instead of reconciliation the player requested that the club open negotiations with United.
The opening bid is understood to be independent of David de Gea's move in the opposite direction but it is clear United will now use their interest in Ramos to come to an agreement over the sale of their goalkeeper.
In the last two days the war between Ramos and the Spanish club's president Florentino Perez has escalated beyond the parameters of stalled contract negotiations and on Wednesday Ramos asked Real to climb down from their stance of only allowing him to leave if a club pays his £180m buy-out clause.
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