When Real Madrid welcome Sevilla to the baying, hostile Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday, it won’t just be LaLiga‘s game of the weekend — it will also offer us the spectacle of the return of Sergio Ramos, footballing royalty.
The last time Ramos took his unique brand of gladiatorial defiance to this mighty stadium as an opposition player, as he’ll do for Los Rojiblancos this weekend, was 20 years ago, again for Sevilla. In the interim, he went on to earn his status as an all-time Real Madrid legend.
From punchy beginnings as the first Spaniard whom Florentino Perez ever signed — no easy feat in an era when Los Blancos‘ president swooned only over Galacticos such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo or David Beckham — Ramos eventually went on to make 469 appearances, win 22 trophies (including four Champions Leagues) and earn the most red cards of any LaLiga player. All of it was done with a perpetual swaggering, an aggressive style of captaincy that is required at a club like Real Madrid.
– Stream live on ESPN+: Real Madrid vs. Sevilla (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, U.S. only)
Sunday will truly be football’s version of the gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius returning to take his adoring ovation from the Coliseum.
Given Ramos’ tendency to produce the most audacious, pugnacious and often ridiculous performances, there’s every chance that — once the Madrid fans have chanted their love for him — he’ll power home a header to give Sevilla the lead, kick Vinicius up in the air, tutor the referee in how to run the game “the Sergio Ramos way,” knock in an own goal and get sent off before the final whistle. Well, something like that.
But Ramos is not the only returning “royal.” The man in the Sevilla dugout — the guy who is starting to look like a British World War II Commando now that he sports that big, bushy beard and roll-neck jumpers — is a lesser-known, but still significant part of the Real Madrid royal hierarchy.
While he hasn’t been victorious as the opposing coach at the Bernabeu for nearly 20 years, he’s nonetheless defeated Los Blancos sufficiently regularly, with Getafe, Espanyol and Valencia, to be treated with proper respect by current Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti.
In fact, it was the Italian who was the last Madrid coach to lose to Sanchez-Flores (January 2022) after which Quique tried to dampen down the praise which came his way, saying: “Flattery is very debilitating — many teachers in my life taught me this, especially Di Stefano who told me that if you puff out your chest it’ll end up sinking you. Flattery makes me suffer — I sweat, I blush and the idea that my players might think that I’m talking in the media after a big win because I want to be the ‘protagonist’ just embarrasses me.”
The coronation and the cascading appreciation on Sunday will be for Crown Prince Ramos, not Quique Sanchez Flores. And that’s just the way he’ll want it to be.
Mind you, given Sevilla’s perilous LaLiga position, he’d probably welcome a feeling of intense embarrassment for having to deal with the Monday morning praise, which would certainly follow a surprise, against-the-odds Sevilla away triumph.
But, win lose or draw on Sunday, Di Stefano’s godson remains one of those who helped add to Real Madrid’s legendary status and a part of Spanish society’s rich, colourful tapestry.
