All his efforts to regain full possession of his body, widely staged on social networks, will not have been enough. Sergio Ramos, a great fan of bullfighting, will not taste the games of the Cartuja arena, where the Spanish team play their three matches in Group E of the Euro football, at home in Seville.
Dismissed by coach Luis Enrique at the end of a season truncated by repeated injuries, the captain of the Roja, with whom he has already won two European Championships (2008, 2012) and a World Cup (2010), will have to wait before beating the selection record of the Egyptian Ahmed Hassan (184, against 180 for the Andalusian).
“It’s hard not to represent your country, but you have to be honest and sincere”, he reacted, lucid, on May 24 after the announcement. Sergio Ramos, 35, has only played five games in 2021 with his club Real Madrid and is still in suspense over a contract extension this summer.
It pains me not to have been able to help my team more and not to play for Spain but, in this case, the best thing… https://t.co/hDPlfGD0Qw
Guided by personal bests, after having already won everything in club (5 Spanish championships, 4 champions leagues, 4 club world cups) as well as in selection, the Andalusian will have to find a base and heal his physique to achieve his ultimate goal: to become the first player to play in six worlds (there are currently four), and to mark the history of Spanish sport even more.
Best “scoring defender”
For his part, Luis Enrique knows he is taking a risk by depriving himself of his captain, even diminished. In selection, as under the jersey Merengue in Madrid, the native of Camas, in the western suburbs of Seville, is little more than an ordeal for opposing attackers.
Better “Goal scorer” of the XXIe century (101 goals scored with Real Madrid, 3 with Sevilla FC, 23 with Spain), this big fan of the film Braveheart is able to free his team in decisive matches and take over from strikers lacking inspiration.
In his autobiography Me, Giorgio (Sperling & Kupfer, 2020), Giorgio Chiellini, the Italian reference of the post, paid tribute to his opponent: “Without him, stars like Varane, Carvajal and Marcelo look like children of the reserve team. Without Ramos, Real becomes a defenseless team. “
The absence of Ramos is not the only curiosity of the Spanish list. For the first time in its history, the Roja advance in a major international competition without any representative of Real Madrid, by far the most successful institution on the national scene (34 league titles) and European (13 champions leagues).
“It’s anecdotal. Among the applicants, Sergio Ramos and Lucas Vazquez were physically affected, Marco Asensio did not have his best season, and the coach opted for other right-back profiles than that of Nacho ”, judges former striker Alfonso Pérez, trained at Real Madrid and Olympic champion in 1992 with Spain.
The English championship, El Dorado for the Spaniards
The“Anecdote” however, reveals a strong trend in local football. Long sedentary, the Spanish footballer has become an export product. And El Dorado is in England. Thus, 10 of the 24 players summoned by Luis Enrique play in the Premier League, the English championship, including four in Manchester City, the most represented club.
The talent drain is nothing new at Real Madrid, where successive captains (Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas, Raúl, Fernando Hierro) often serve as national standards in locker rooms populated by stars from the rest of Europe and from South America.
It is more recent at FC Barcelona, the other main historical provider of the Roja, only represented by three players at the Euro (Sergio Busquets, appointed captain, Jordi Alba and the nugget Pedri), against seven in the 2012 title.
None of them appears as a potential holder in Luis Enrique’s eleven, unlike Dani Olmo, attacking midfielder of RB Leipzig, former captain of the Espoirs, who left Barça at 16 to hatch at Dinamo Zagreb and learn the Serbo-Croatian by the way.
“In current football, with all the transfers, you have to be very good when you’re young to get a place in the first team, whether in Madrid, Barcelona or the rest of the country”, recognizes Alfonso Pérez.
Without an agreement with Real Madrid, his club since 2005, Sergio Ramos could leave Spain in turn. Manchester City is already waiting for it with a tempting contract. Bad news for the attackers, but also for the Premier League goalkeepers.
Spain-Sweden, Monday June 14 at 9 p.m., in Seville, to follow live on Lemonde.fr
Our selection of articles on Euro 2021