Sergio Ramos is used to life in the spotlight. This Saturday will be no different as the defender's current team Sevilla host Real Madrid, the club he joined as a teenager and left as a legend, 16 years and 22 trophies later.
Ramos has dominated Spanish football for two decades. Part of Spain's three consecutive major tournament wins in 2008, 2010 and 2012 and Real Madrid's four Champions Leagues in five years between 2014 and 2018, he captained Spain's men's national team, and the country's biggest club. Year after year, if any player could be relied on for dramatic goals, spectacular sendings off, outspoken comments and off-the-field drama, it was Ramos.
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Now 37, the centre-back is facing a new challenge with boyhood club Sevilla, whom he rejoined last month for an emotional last hurrah in LaLiga after leaving Paris Saint-Germain. Ahead of Sevilla vs. Real Madrid (stream live on ESPN+ at 12.30 p.m. ET), ESPN picks 15 key moments -- a number with a special significance for Ramos -- that tell the story of his career.
1. Makes LaLiga debut (Feb. 1, 2004)
Sevilla were 1-0 down away at Deportivo La Coruña -- then a top team packed with stars like Mauro Silva, Juan Carlos Valeron and Diego Tristan -- when coach Joaquin Caparros turned to 17-year-old Ramos as a second-half substitute.
Caparros tells the story of how earlier that winter, he noticed youth-team right-back Ramos when he broke his nose in a training game and insisted on playing through it. "He was going for headers even more forcefully after that," the manager told El Mundo in 2015.
Ramos made seven league appearances between February and May that season. Over the next year he became a regular in Sevilla's starting XI, made his international debut with Spain and, in January 2005, signed a new contract with a €27 million release clause. But it wouldn't keep him there for long.
2. Signs for Real Madrid (Aug. 31, 2005)
Ramos had been at Sevilla since he was nine years old, and his departure from the club was so contentious that the resulting fracture with some of its fanbase has still not healed to this day. Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido presented Ramos' exit as the player's unilateral decision, saying that Real Madrid had paid his release clause.
"I promised [the fans] I wouldn't sell Sergio Ramos and I didn't," Del Nido said. "They paid the release clause. There's nothing else to say."
Ramos later claimed that the clubs had in fact ended up negotiating a more favourable deal, with Madrid paying the €27m in instalments, avoiding the need to pay the additional Value Added Tax (VAT) on top.
Sevilla's fans blamed the player for forcing the move, calling him "pesetero" or a money grabber. Nine months later, Ramos' agents held an hour-long news conference "to defend his honour" after he'd been targeted by insults from the crowd during Madrid's 4-3 defeat at Sevilla in May 2006.
"This is all Del Nido's fault for not telling the truth about my transfer," Ramos said.
3. The death of Antonio Puerta (Aug. 28, 2007)
Ramos and Puerta were close. They came through Sevilla's academy together and made their first-team debuts within weeks of each other, part of a talented generation that also included Jesús Navas.
Puerta's death after suffering a heart attack during Sevilla's opening game of the 2007-08 season -- he was later found to have been suffering from arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a hereditary heart disease -- affected Ramos deeply. Every time time Spain lifted a trophy between 2008 and 2012, Ramos made sure to wear a t-shirt bearing Puerta's face and the message: "Always with us."
Ramos wore the No. 15 for Spain, never switching to his favourite No. 4 because Puerta had that number in his only national team appearance on Oct. 7, 2006. "I want to thank three people who marked my life and aren't here today," Ramos said last month, on rejoining Sevilla. "Puerta, my grandfather and my father."
4. Wins Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012
Before 2008, Spain had only won one major tournament: the 1964 European Championship. The country's golden era, under first coach Luis Aragones and then Vicente del Bosque, came with Ramos as a vital part of the defence.
Just over three years after making his international debut, Ramos was part of the back four -- alongside centre-backs Carles Puyol and Carlos Marchena, and left-back Joan Capdevila -- which won Euro 2008, beating Germany 1-0 in the final in Vienna. Two years later, with Gerard Pique replacing Marchena, Ramos started all seven games at right-back as Spain won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, beating Netherlands 1-0 after extra time in the final in Johannesburg.
By 2012, Ramos had switched to his preferred position of centre-back, partnering Pique as Spain won the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine, beating Italy 4-0 in the most one-sided final in the tournament's history.
5. Gets first red card in a Clasico (Nov. 29, 2010)
Over time, Ramos and red cards became inseparable. The defender was sent off a record-breaking 26 times for Real Madrid -- 20 of them in LaLiga -- and five times in the most high-profile fixture of all: El Clasico.
The first of those came in perhaps Madrid's most iconic, shambolic defeat to Barcelona, the infamous 5-0 thrashing at Camp Nou in November 2010. Referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez described it as the most difficult Clasico he ever dealt with, given the poisonous atmosphere deliberately stoked by Madrid coach Jose Mourinho.
Pep Guardiola's Barca were already five goals up when Ramos was dismissed in the 93rd minute for kicking Lionel Messi from behind -- making no attempt whatsoever to play the ball -- and sparking a brawl, before shoving Spain teammates Puyol and Xavi Hernandez on his way off the pitch.
6. Drops the Copa del Rey trophy (April 21, 2011)
Some players single-handedly cost their team a trophy, their actions on the pitch contributing directly to a defeat. But Ramos let the 2011 Copa del Rey slip through his fingers in a more literal sense.
On the pitch, Real Madrid had beaten bitter rivals Barcelona 1-0 after extra time at Mestalla, Cristiano Ronaldo's header giving them their first Copa del Rey title in 18 years. Back in Madrid later that night, El Pais picks up the story.
"At around 4.15 in the morning, as the bus in which the cup winners were travelling was getting close to [the fountain where Real Madrid celebrate trophy wins] Cibeles, the weighty trophy won in Valencia slipped out of the hands of Sergio Ramos," the newspaper reported. "The cup fell under one of the vehicle's front wheels and was run over."
"That cup is damn heavy!" Ramos told streamer Ibai Llanos in 2021, explaining that the open top bus had braked suddenly, forcing him to choose between dropping the trophy, or risk injuring himself.
The original, battered Copa trophy is now on display in the Spanish football federation's museum. Real Madrid were swiftly handed a back-up replica.
7. Scores in the Champions League final (May 24, 2014)
It might just be the most significant goal Real Madrid have ever scored, and it's one that any Madridista can identify from its timing alone: the 93rd minute.
Trailing 1-0 to Atletico Madrid in added time in Lisbon, Real were seconds from what would have been the bleakest night in the club's history -- beaten by their local rivals, extending their anxious wait for La Decima, the club's 10th European Cup -- when Ramos rose to meet Luka Modric's corner. His downward header, placed in the corner beyond the dive of despairing goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, made it 1-1 and forced extra time, when Atletico tired and Real won at a canter, 4-1.
Ramos' goal kickstarted a period of unprecedented Champions League success for Real Madrid, as they won the competition five times in a decade.
8. Tempted by Manchester United (July 2015)
Ramos' growing status as a dressing-room heavyweight made a clash with Real Madrid's other off-field powerbroker, club president Florentino Perez, almost inevitable. A previously close relationship first showed signs of strain in 2015.
Ramos felt under-appreciated and undervalued, with Manchester United offering a way out. With another legend, goalkeeper Iker Casillas, having already left Madrid that summer, the club could not afford to lose Ramos. And so Perez travelled to Guangzhou, China, where the team were on a pre-season tour, for face-to-face crisis talks. A substantial pay rise for Ramos was greenlit.
"For a moment, I thought about a change of scenery," the defender told Cadena COPE in 2016, admitting that he had received a formal offer from United. "But in the end my priority was always Real Madrid... Perhaps [I felt] disappointed, but there were problems that were sorted out and everybody was happy. [The problems] weren't financial."
9. Scores against Sevilla, baits the fans (Jan. 12, 2017)
Sevilla's fans -- in particular, the ultras group "Biris Norte" -- never forgave Ramos for leaving. That hurt him, and the emotion caused by the rift was never far from boiling over.
In January 2017, Madrid played Sevilla in the Copa del Rey round of 16. Madrid had won the first leg 3-0, but Sevilla rallied in the second leg to lead 3-1 -- leaving the tie on a knife edge -- before Ramos scored an 83rd minute penalty to take a 5-3 aggregate lead.
The coolness of his finish, stuttering his run-up and chipping a "Panenka" penalty, was followed by an angry celebration. Ramos repeatedly pointed to his name on the back of his shirt in a gesture aimed at the ultras behind the goal, holding up his hands in apology to the rest of the stadium before turning to cup his ears again towards those fans that still loathed him.
Ramos scored 101 goals in 16 years at Real Madrid, numbers which put him in the company of elite forwards -- it's three fewer than Ronaldo Nazario, the same number as Ivan Zamorano, and one more than Fernando Morientes -- with a career-high 11 league goals coming in the 2019-20 season.
10. Injures Mohamed Salah in Champions League final (May 26, 2018)
Real Madrid's unprecedented third Champions League win in three years -- beating Liverpool 3-1 in the 2018 final -- was a career highlight, but Ramos was stung by the reaction to the game's most controversial incident, the dislocated shoulder suffered by Liverpool's most dangerous player, Mohamed Salah, after Ramos' first-half challenge.
Salah called it the "worst moment of my career," though Ramos protested his innocence.
"I didn't want to talk about it, because everything gets magnified," he said on Spain duty a month later. "But watching it back, [Salah] grabbed me first. I fell the other way. In fact, he hurt his other arm. And people are saying I had him in a judo hold ... With an injection, he could even have played the second half. I've done it sometimes. It's no big deal."
11. Threatens to leave for China (summer 2019)
The 2018-19 season was a disaster. Real Madrid missed the goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, who had left for Juventus, and neither Julen Lopetegui nor Santiago Solari were able to live up to Zinedine Zidane's record as coach.
Underwhelming league and cup campaigns were underlined by a humiliating Champions League elimination by Ajax, who beat Madrid 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu on March 5. A dressing-room row with Perez followed, with Ramos -- who missed the game through suspension -- responding to the president's criticism with a proposition: pay up my contract and I'll leave.
Ramos even floated a lucrative move to China. "He came to my office and told me he had an important offer from China, but they couldn't pay a transfer fee," Perez told Onda Cero. "I told him we couldn't do that. Letting our captain leave for free is impossible, it would set a dangerous precedent."
Ramos responded: "[Perez and I] have always had a good relationship, but with ups and downs. I miss that relationship ... We used to talk almost every day. When you don't have that, you consider things, like the possibility of going to China. But there's a big difference between the possibility of going, and deciding to go."
12. Releases Amazon documentary (Sept. 13, 2019)
Ramos' interests extend far beyond football. He's an avid art collector and fan -- last June he posted enthusiastically about a trip to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art -- as well as being a horse breeder, music lover and businessman.
Those off-field activities featured in the documentary series "El Corazon de Sergio Ramos" -- "The Heart of Sergio Ramos" -- released on Amazon Prime Video in September 2019. Eight half-hour episodes detailed Ramos' family life and roots in Seville, as well as Real Madrid's difficult 2018-19 season, culminating in the Champions League defeat to Ajax, viewed from Ramos' private box at the Bernabeu.
However, it's fair to say it's not essential viewing. The series has a 2.4/10 rating on the website FilmAffinity, with one reviewer describing the results as "catastrophic" and another as "extremely boring."
13. Breaks Spain appearance record (Oct. 12, 2019)
The Spain men's national team struggled to meet the standard set between 2008 and 2012, with disappointing tournaments in 2014 -- crashing out as World Cup holders at the group stage -- 2016 and 2018. But Ramos continued to rack up international caps, eventually becoming his country's all-time record appearance holder, overtaking Casillas, when he played his 168th international game against Norway in October 2019.
Ramos had his sights on another, grander target, becoming the men's footballer with most international caps, though his hopes were dashed when he was unceremoniously dropped by coach Luis Enrique for Euro 2020. That left him on 180 appearances, sixth on an all-time men's list currently led by Cristiano Ronaldo, with 203 games for Portugal and counting.
14. Leaves Real Madrid (June 16, 2021)
When Ramos finally left Real Madrid, nobody could agree on exactly who had made the decision. Talks over a new contract had dragged on throughout 2020-21. Ramos wanted the security of a two-year deal; the club would only offer him one. When the player was slow to accept, he was told the offer had expired.
"I never wanted to leave Real Madrid," Ramos insisted in his farewell news conference. "I accepted the offer with a pay cut, and was told there was no longer an offer... It had an expiry date, and I didn't realise."
There was no shortage of top-level interest in a player of Ramos' experience and quality, even at 35. ESPN reported that Manchester City were keen, but after long and positive conversations with Pep Guardiola, Ramos opted to join Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year contract.
15. Returns to Sevilla (Sept. 4, 2023)
A summer of uncertainty after leaving PSG ended with Ramos joining Sevilla as a free agent, 18 years after he departed. It was an awkward U-turn for the club.
Two weeks earlier, president Jose Castro and sporting director Victor Orta had both explicitly ruled out his signing.
Ramos was "never an option," Castro said. There was "no chance," according to Orta, pointing to six centre-backs already in the squad. Now, both were sat alongside Ramos at his presentation. Sevilla's poor start to the season had forced a rethink.
For his part, Ramos described his return as "a debt" he owed to his family, the fans, and to Puerta. "Now I can die happy," he said after his second debut, a 1-0 win over Las Palmas on Sept. 17.
There's been drama since: Ramos scored an unlucky own goal in a 1-0 loss to Barcelona and coach Jose Luis Mendilibar has been sacked, replaced by the Uruguayan Diego Alonso. But Ramos should feel more comfortable playing for Alonso, after Mendilibar chastised him for playing the ball out from the back.
The first test for the new coach is the visit of Real Madrid on Saturday.