In 2021, Real Madrid refused to renew the contract of veteran captain and leader Sergio Ramos, forcing him to look for a new club. And it turned out to be PSG, but according to the results of the first season, this transfer was difficult to name, since Sergio was treated more often than he played. And yet, from the second season, Ramos turned on to the maximum, and now he is once again one of the best defenders on the planet, especially among those who know how to make opponents difficult even in attack.
New Spain coach Luis de la Fuente was rumored to be counting on Ramos, 36, but the player dashed their hopes by announcing his retirement from the national team. In this article we are going to recall the most remembered moments of Ramos in the ‘Red Fury’.
2005 – premiere
Ramos has played in all the lower categories in Spain and it was a matter of time before he was called up to the first team, but even for him the moment came sooner than expected.
While still a Sevilla player, Ramos was called up by Luis Aragonés, making him the youngest player on the team since the 1940s. His debut came in a match against China.
2008 – victory in the Eurocup
Three years later, Ramos was already an integral part of the team, which was entering its golden age, and the victory in Euro 2008 was the first step in such a famous thesis.
The Real Madrid defender played five full games (including the final), missing only the meeting with the Greeks in the group stage.
2010 – victory in the World Cup
Two years later, Spain continued to increase its dominance in the international arena, and Ramos played a key role in this. In South Africa, the defender returned to run all the matches and, according to the results of 120 minutes against the Netherlands, Ramos lifted the first World Cup trophy in the history of Spain.
2012 – victory in the Eurocup
And again the victory in the Eurocup, but this time different from the previous one. Sergio, unlike the previous big tournaments, played as a central defender, and not as a right back, as was the case before.
Ramos played six full matches and, most surprisingly, Spain conceded only one goal at the start of the tournament – from Italy (1:1).
2013 – 100th match
By the age of 27, Ramos had earned 100 caps, making him the youngest player in the country’s history to reach that mark.
2019 – match record for the national team
Six years later, Ramos stopped being just a classy defender from Spain and went back to training to become a true legend for all of football. In 2019, after the match with Norway, Sergio overtook Iker Casillas in number of appearances with the Spanish team. And a few years later, Ramos increased the advantage over his former teammate, raising the number of matches to 180. There are 13 more than Casillas.
And this is a crazy number, even when compared to other stars in Spain, for example:
Xavier-133;
Xabi Alonso – 114;
Fernando Torres-110;
Raul – 102;
Carlos Puyol – 100.
Ramos is a rock!
2020 – enter the list of top scorers
In 2020, Ramos went down in history once again, and the occasion is completely unusual for a central defender. After having scored a brace against the Ukraine team in the League of Nations, Sergio has accumulated 23 goals with Spain, thanks to which he entered the country’s top ten scorers.
Ramos was ahead of many legendary players, only passing forwards and attacking midfielders past him. If Ramos had scored one more goal, he would have surpassed even Alfredo Di Stéfano, but Sergio had already done the impossible.
In total, during 18 years in the national team, Ramos has accumulated the following achievements to be proud of:
• 180 matches
• 23 goals
• 8 assists
• World Champion (2010)
• European Champion (2008, 2012)
Bravo!
