Sergio Ramos has been a regular for Sevilla this season.
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Legendary former Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos is set to return to the place he calls ‘home’ for the first time in three years on Sunday night as Sevilla travel to the Spanish capital to take on the LALIGA leaders at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.
Ramos departed the club in 2021 after making 671 appearances in 16 years at the club. When he did, he left as an iconic player for the club, having won five LALIGA titles, four UEFA Champions League trophies and two Copa del Rey campaigns.
“It will make me feel like I am at home,” Ramos told LALIGA World. “In the end I spent many years there in the most important moments of my career. And I have wonderful memories of the people, the fans, everyone.. my teammates. I think it will also be a unique moment for me, a very emotional moment.”
Now, he will return to his former home aged 37 but still playing at the highest level. Ramos has become one of Sevilla’s leaders, alongside his old friend Jesús Navas, and returns to the capital looking to add to the team’s four-game unbeaten run.
If he does so by scoring, he won’t be celebrating though. The defender explained, “I have a lot of respect for all the fans and all of Madrid, I wouldn’t celebrate but if I happen to score and it was enough for us to win I would be delighted, those three points would be very good for us.”
It won’t only be Ramos who is emotional, with AS reporting that Real Madrid will pay tribute to their former captain before kick-off.
Four years since his last outing at the Bernabéu
When Ramos crosses the white line at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, it will be the first time he does so as an opposing player since December 22nd, 2004, some two decades ago.
The defender is actually unbeaten in his three clashes against the club where he played for most of his career. All three of his appearances against Los Blancos came in Sevilla colors, including a 1-0 win at the Bernabéu in 2004, a 2-2 draw in 2005 in which he scored the first goal, and the 1-1 tie from earlier this season.
Ramos was also part of the Paris Saint-Germain squad who were knocked out by Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League last 16 in 2021/22, but he was unavailable for both legs due to injury.
It has also been a significant amount of time since he graced the Bernabéu turf in any jersey. The Covid-19 pandemic and building work at the stadium meant that his final season and a half at the club were spent playing home matches at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano at the club’s training complex in Valdebebas.
As such, this will be his first visit to the Bernabéu since a 2-0 win in a Clásico against Barcelona on March 1st, 2020, only a little over a week before Spain went into lockdown.
A mixed spell in Paris followed before Ramos returned to Seville, his home town, to play for his boyhood club. Things have not worked out how he may have hoped and Quique Sánchez Flores, the team’s third coach this season, has them in 15th place in LALIGA.
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