Sergio Ramos says goodbye to the Spanish National Team for good. The defender and ex-captain of La Roja leaves him after 180 international matches and with a great record: world champion in 2010 and two-time European champion (2008 and 2012). He withdraws from the National Team with a statement in which he leaves several very forceful comments and shows his anger at how it has developed.
One of those mentioned in the statement is the current coach, Luis de la Fuente. “This morning I received a call from the current coach who He has told me that he does not count and that he will not count on me, regardless of the level I can show or how my sports career continues”. De la Fuente assured in AS, when asked about a possible return of the camero, that “nobody has the door closed, the best will come. It will depend on the states of form in all cases. I’ll talk to Ramos.” But for the ex-captain the door has remained closed.
Another of the reasons for Ramos’s anger is because of how the news has been delivered. He considered that due to his status with La Roja the decision should have been his. “With much regret, It is the end of a journey that I hoped would be longer and that it would end with a better taste in the mouth, on a par with all the successes we have achieved with our Red. I believe that this trajectory deserved to end due to a personal decision or because my performance was not up to what our National Team deserves”.
“Being young or less young is not a virtue or a defect”
The current PSG player had not played for Spain for almost two years. The last time he played was in March 2021, when he played four minutes against Kosovo and then physical problems made it difficult for him to return in the following calls. Although the performance he gave last season in Paris made him one of the candidates to go to the World Cup in Qatar. There is one of his complaints, since he considers that his goodbye should not be conditioned to a “question of age or other reasons that, without having heard them, I have felt. Because being young or less young is not a virtue or a defect, it is just a temporary characteristic that is not necessarily related to performance or ability. And he gives the example of other veteran stars: “I look with admiration and envy at Modric, Messi, Pepe…”.
All these messages are summarized in one last forceful sentence: “The essence, tradition, values, meritocracy and justice in football. Unfortunately it will not be like that for me, because football is not always fair and football is never just football. Despite how he said goodbye, Ramos leaves the National Team “with his head held high and very grateful for all these years.”