Why Sergio Ramos, for all his history at the club, is not what Real Madrid need right now
After 16 seasons and 22 titles, there was a fair amount of controversy when Sergio Ramos finally said goodbye to Real Madridin 2021.
“I’m not saying goodbye, I’m saying see you soon, because I’ll be back, I’ll be back for sure #HalaMadrid,” wrote the then captain of the Bernabeu side to finish a thread on Twitter.
Despite the Andalusian’s assurance, it was hard to know if that would ever really happen — in a playing or non-playing capacity — and given he was 35 years old at the time, nobody would have thought they would see him pull on a Madrid shirt again for Carlo Ancelotti or any other coach.
In the intervening three years, Ramos has played for Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla, but he has been without a club since July. In the meantime, Madrid have been hit with a plague of injuries, especially in the centre of defence.
Ancelotti has only one elite centre-back available: Antonio Rudiger.
Eder Militao, who missed almost all of last season with a serious knee injury, suffered another one against Osasunaat the weekend, and there is still no return date for David Alabafollowing his knee operation last December. To make matters worse, Aurelien Tchouameni, the central midfielder who has been considered the club’s third centre-back for this season, will be out for around a month with a foot issue. Then there is Dani Carvajal. Madrid’s right-back but their fourth centre-back when fit, he was lost to a season-ending knee injury in October.
It was inevitable that Ramos’ name would crop up as soon as the seriousness of Militao’s injury became known, just as it did last month after we learned the extent of Carvajal’s one.
It helped that the Spanish centre-back posted a video on Instagram at half-time of the Osasuna match on Saturday, where Militao had gone off after half an hour, showing off his physical power and work ethic. “Feeling strong!” he wrote.
Some Madrid fans thought it was in bad taste, given the close proximity to Militao’s latest misfortune. Ramos also liked a post in which Guti, another legendary former Madrid player, suggested the club re-sign him.
“I have heard his name already, although not directly from the club,” the agent of a Madrid first-team player, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, told The Athleticon Saturday.
“There was no doubt that his name was going to be mentioned,” said another when this information was passed on to him.
However, the board do not seem keen to go for Ramos, and not because of the noise generated by what happened nearly four years ago. With his contract due to expire the following June, Ramos held a meeting with Madrid’s president Florentino Perez in December 2020. No agreement was reached and the defender told Perez to plan for the 2021-22 season without him.
Ramos, as he explained in his farewell press conference, interpreted that meeting as just another moment in a negotiation, not as a point of no return.
In the absence of an understanding, Madrid did not stand still. In fact, they moved forward by agreeing a deal for Alaba that January, and he joined from Bayern Munich as a free agent six months later.
The club’s proposal to Ramos had been a deal for one more including a 10 per cent pay cut to help alleviate the damage done to the Madrid accounts by the pandemic. The player, seeking greater stability for himself and his family, wanted a two-year contract.
There was a very tense tug-of-war in private, with the situation delicate between intermediaries such as general manager Jose Angel Sanchez and the footballer’s brother and representative Rene Ramos, forcing the two main players in the drama, Florentino and Sergio, to speak directly.
In parallel, a media war was bubbling, and there were very direct leaks from both sides. Perez has always had a reputation for having a lot of power in the Spanish press, and that was something Ramos had also cultivated by that point. This is one of the reasons given by those who do not see his return now as a good solution.
When Ramos eventually wanted to accept Madrid’s offer, it was in vain.
“I was informed through my agent that the offer had expired and we were surprised,” he said at his farewell event, which was attended by Perez, with whom it was always said he had a father-son relationship, for better or worse. “I also let him (Perez) know that I accepted the last offer, even though it was too late.”
But that messy divorce is not understood to be key in the current context. Ramos has said, “I don’t want any kind of grudge”, and in the February of last season the club prepared a small tribute to him in his first match back at the Bernabeu with Sevilla.
Now there is more reticence about the return of ageing legends, as was the case recently with Cristiano Ronaldo, and about the free agent market. If these players have been without a club for months, then it’s seen as difficult for them to come in and make an immediate contribution on the pitch.
Sources within the Madrid coaching staff have preferred not to even assess the option of re-signing Ramos, although Ancelotti was very complimentary about the player in February.
“He is a fantastic captain, a real captain, an example of personality, character, quality…” the Italian said. “I’ve been lucky to have captains like him, (Paolo) Maldini or (John) Terry, with great personality, and this helps a lot to have a good atmosphere in the squad.”
Although not everyone feels the same about Ramos, at Sevilla they came round to Ancelotti’s way of thinking.
When Ramos returned to his boyhood club at the start of last season, the majority of Sevilla fans were against the move due to the manner in which he’d left them for Madrid in 2005. But he turned the situation around in what was a difficult season for the club as they finished 14th in La Liga, and he ended the campaign having played the second-most minutes (3,301) in their squad.
Ramos won over more and more people as the season unfolded, in the stands and within the club. Having signed a one-year deal on a very low salary, he helped young defenders such as Loic Badeand Kike Salasdevelop.
There is an argument that perhaps Ramos could now fulfil a similar role at the Bernabeu, in terms of mentoring young defenders and offering leadership in the dressing room and on the pitch. But that is not what Madrid would be after. If they were to bring anyone in during this injury crisis, he would have to be able to contribute to the team right away.
At 38, and having not played a competitive game of football since May, Ramos is not the player Madrid need right now.
Why Sergio Ramos, for all his history at the club, is not what Real Madrid need right now
After 16 seasons and 22 titles, there was a fair amount of controversy when Sergio Ramos finally said goodbye to Real Madridin 2021.
“I’m not saying goodbye, I’m saying see you soon, because I’ll be back, I’ll be back for sure #HalaMadrid,” wrote the then captain of the Bernabeu side to finish a thread on Twitter.
Despite the Andalusian’s assurance, it was hard to know if that would ever really happen — in a playing or non-playing capacity — and given he was 35 years old at the time, nobody would have thought they would see him pull on a Madrid shirt again for Carlo Ancelotti or any other coach.
In the intervening three years, Ramos has played for Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla, but he has been without a club since July. In the meantime, Madrid have been hit with a plague of injuries, especially in the centre of defence.
Ancelotti has only one elite centre-back available: Antonio Rudiger.
Eder Militao, who missed almost all of last season with a serious knee injury, suffered another one against Osasunaat the weekend, and there is still no return date for David Alabafollowing his knee operation last December. To make matters worse, Aurelien Tchouameni, the central midfielder who has been considered the club’s third centre-back for this season, will be out for around a month with a foot issue. Then there is Dani Carvajal. Madrid’s right-back but their fourth centre-back when fit, he was lost to a season-ending knee injury in October.
It was inevitable that Ramos’ name would crop up as soon as the seriousness of Militao’s injury became known, just as it did last month after we learned the extent of Carvajal’s one.
It helped that the Spanish centre-back posted a video on Instagram at half-time of the Osasuna match on Saturday, where Militao had gone off after half an hour, showing off his physical power and work ethic. “Feeling strong!” he wrote.
Some Madrid fans thought it was in bad taste, given the close proximity to Militao’s latest misfortune. Ramos also liked a post in which Guti, another legendary former Madrid player, suggested the club re-sign him.
“I have heard his name already, although not directly from the club,” the agent of a Madrid first-team player, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, told The Athleticon Saturday.
“There was no doubt that his name was going to be mentioned,” said another when this information was passed on to him.
However, the board do not seem keen to go for Ramos, and not because of the noise generated by what happened nearly four years ago. With his contract due to expire the following June, Ramos held a meeting with Madrid’s president Florentino Perez in December 2020. No agreement was reached and the defender told Perez to plan for the 2021-22 season without him.
Ramos, as he explained in his farewell press conference, interpreted that meeting as just another moment in a negotiation, not as a point of no return.
In the absence of an understanding, Madrid did not stand still. In fact, they moved forward by agreeing a deal for Alaba that January, and he joined from Bayern Munich as a free agent six months later.
The club’s proposal to Ramos had been a deal for one more including a 10 per cent pay cut to help alleviate the damage done to the Madrid accounts by the pandemic. The player, seeking greater stability for himself and his family, wanted a two-year contract.
There was a very tense tug-of-war in private, with the situation delicate between intermediaries such as general manager Jose Angel Sanchez and the footballer’s brother and representative Rene Ramos, forcing the two main players in the drama, Florentino and Sergio, to speak directly.
In parallel, a media war was bubbling, and there were very direct leaks from both sides. Perez has always had a reputation for having a lot of power in the Spanish press, and that was something Ramos had also cultivated by that point. This is one of the reasons given by those who do not see his return now as a good solution.
When Ramos eventually wanted to accept Madrid’s offer, it was in vain.
“I was informed through my agent that the offer had expired and we were surprised,” he said at his farewell event, which was attended by Perez, with whom it was always said he had a father-son relationship, for better or worse. “I also let him (Perez) know that I accepted the last offer, even though it was too late.”
But that messy divorce is not understood to be key in the current context. Ramos has said, “I don’t want any kind of grudge”, and in the February of last season the club prepared a small tribute to him in his first match back at the Bernabeu with Sevilla.
Now there is more reticence about the return of ageing legends, as was the case recently with Cristiano Ronaldo, and about the free agent market. If these players have been without a club for months, then it’s seen as difficult for them to come in and make an immediate contribution on the pitch.
Sources within the Madrid coaching staff have preferred not to even assess the option of re-signing Ramos, although Ancelotti was very complimentary about the player in February.
“He is a fantastic captain, a real captain, an example of personality, character, quality…” the Italian said. “I’ve been lucky to have captains like him, (Paolo) Maldini or (John) Terry, with great personality, and this helps a lot to have a good atmosphere in the squad.”
Although not everyone feels the same about Ramos, at Sevilla they came round to Ancelotti’s way of thinking.
When Ramos returned to his boyhood club at the start of last season, the majority of Sevilla fans were against the move due to the manner in which he’d left them for Madrid in 2005. But he turned the situation around in what was a difficult season for the club as they finished 14th in La Liga, and he ended the campaign having played the second-most minutes (3,301) in their squad.
Ramos won over more and more people as the season unfolded, in the stands and within the club. Having signed a one-year deal on a very low salary, he helped young defenders such as Loic Badeand Kike Salasdevelop.
There is an argument that perhaps Ramos could now fulfil a similar role at the Bernabeu, in terms of mentoring young defenders and offering leadership in the dressing room and on the pitch. But that is not what Madrid would be after. If they were to bring anyone in during this injury crisis, he would have to be able to contribute to the team right away.
At 38, and having not played a competitive game of football since May, Ramos is not the player Madrid need right now.
