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Ramos in spotlight again but Madrid need him more than ever
MADRID, Nov 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – More than hour after the final whistle
had sounded on Real Madrid’s 3-0 humiliation by Eibar on Saturday, Sergio
Ramos began to let rip.
Deep in the belly of the tiny 7,083-capacity Ipurua stadium, Ramos said
his side’s attitude had been off, their intensity lacking. “When you don’t
match your opponent, you become a vulgar team,” he said.
It was not the result Real wanted before they travel to Roma in the
Champions League on Tuesday, when the winner is likely to go through top of
Group G.
Then Ramos moved onto the anti-doping allegations published on Friday by
German magazine Der Spiegel.
The most damaging among them claimed Ramos tested positive for
dexamethasone after the 2017 Champions League final and failed to declare it,
as is required according to World Anti-Doping Authority regulations.
Responding for the first time, Ramos said: “You can tell a lie many times
over but it is still a lie.”
He added: “These types of people try to stain my reputation and my
professional career.”
The issue may have been exceptional but the sharpness of tongue and
apparent readiness for confrontation has become a vivid part of Ramos’
football persona.
In September, Antoine Griezmann was in the firing line when Ramos used a
Champions League press conference to slap down the Frenchman’s pinings for
the Ballon d’Or.
“Ignorance is bold,” Ramos said, poker-faced.
More recently, he turned Antonio Conte from favourite to no-hoper in the
running to replace Julen Lopetegui as Real coach. “Respect is earned, not
imposed”, Ramos said, supposedly a dig at Conte, a renowned disciplinarian.
This pugnacious Ramos off the pitch chimes so perfectly with his demonic
reputation on it and so it seems possible that one of the game’s most reviled
characters has begun to revel in the noise that surrounds him.
He is loved by Real Madrid, their captain and winner of four Champions
League titles, as well as another four in La Liga. He is liked too at the
Benito Villamarin, where Real Betis fans still appreciate him leaving their
rivals, Sevilla.
But there are few stadiums where the sound of screeching whistles are not
heard as soon as Ramos leaves an opposition striker in a heap.
– Red-card villain –
Lionel Messi knows the feeling. In 2010, Ramos lashed him to the ground
with a swinging left boot and in 2017, clattered him again, sliding in as
Barca threatened a counter-attack.
Both times, Ramos was sent off, two of his 19 La Liga red cards, the most
of any player still playing by quite a distance.
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There would be more if referees had interpreted differently all flailing
arms, charging shoulders and misplaced feet too ambiguous to be deemed
deliberate.
Mohamed Salah missed most of the World Cup finals after one such tussle in
the Champions League final. More than 530,000 Liverpool fans signed a
petition demanding retrospective action against Ramos.
“No one’s nose is more fractured than Ramos’,” Santiago Solari said this
month. “There is no bad intention, he always plays fair. This is a contact
sport.”
Ramos has long been a colossus for Real Madrid and, over the past decade,
arguably the finest central defender in the world.
The concern, however, is that this season, for club and country, he has
been nowhere close to those standards.
His increasingly error-ridden partnership with Raphael Varane at the back
became as much a problem for Lopetegui as a lack of firepower up front.
Sevilla and Barcelona each took advantage, to the tune of eight goals between
them.
England capitalised too, winning 3-2 in Seville, and then Croatia did, by
the same scoreline in Zagreb.
While Ramos is far from solely culpable, some are beginning to wonder if
he has become too eager to pick a fight. His focus might have wavered.
Ramos admitted on Saturday he had been aware for months of the anti-doping
allegations and it is possible angst has taken its toll.
It is also true the 32-year-old has often underperformed at this stage of
the season, only to become faultless around the time the trophies are handed
out in May.
With a new coach, the Champions League group stage getting tight and six
points to make up in La Liga, Madrid could do with that upswing to come
early.
They need Ramos now more than ever, not the brawler or the bravado, but
the player.
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