It was during the summer of 2005 when the paths of Sergio Ramos and Real Madrid first crossed. Ten years later, that 29 year old has become one of the best players in the world in his position and a fundamental piece in the dressing room of one of the most prestigious clubs in the world.
Throughout the years, both the good and the bad, Ramos has always been known as a player who plays with his heart on his sleeve for Real Madrid. He has become an icon for the fans and a leader of the team, both on and off the pitch. It is a relationship that could end sooner than anyone expected due to problems over the player’s contract renovation, one that has been put on hold for months.
Ramos joined Real Madrid in 2005 after just two seasons in the Sevilla first team. In fact, it could be said that just one season at the Pizjúan, the 2004-05 campaign, was enough to awaken the interest of Madrid and chairman Florentino Pérez, in his first term at the helm.
Madrid paid €27 million euros for him, becoming the most expensive signing for the club that summer and the most expensive defender in the history of the Spanish league at the time. On his arrival he took the No.4 shirt, which had been vacated by Fernando Hierro a few years before.
Since his first season, under Luxemburgo, he has been a regular fixture in the Madrid first team, either switching from full-back to centre-back or, more recently under Carlo Ancelotti, also playing as a defensive midfielder.
Since arriving at the Santiago Bernabéu he has only played fewer than 40 matches in one season, the last. In total he has played in 429 official matches and he has scored 55 goals in the shirt of Real Madrid, a sum that makes him the third highest scoring defender in the history of the club after Roberto Carlos, with 67, and Hierro, with 102.
During the ten seasons he has been with Madrid he has won three league titles, two Copa del Rey titles, two Spanish Super Cups, one European Super Cup, one Club World Cup and, above all, the tenth European Cup. He became a club hero with his goal in added time against Atlético Madrid in Lisbon.
During his decade in Madrid, Ramos has always been known as a player who tells things as they are, for saying them in public, which has brought confrontations with his club and with the Spanish national side. His latest public comments, which showed that the relationship between him and Pérez is not at its best, surrounded the dismissal of Ancelotti as coach. Now he could be the one whose cycle has finished at Real Madrid but that will not stop him having an eternal place in the history of the club.