"I think I've made some mistakes in the past. I would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise and ask for their forgiveness to any Sevilla fans who feel offended. ”
On September 4, Sevilla officially announced the return of free agent Sergio Ramos to the team on a one-year contract. After the official announcement, Ramos also released his return speech for the first time.
However, unlike most players who return to their parent team after years of wandering, who return with gratitude and gratitude, Ramos' return speech began with an apology and a request for forgiveness. What kind of complicated past is hidden behind this apology?
[Is he really a traitor?] 】
Sevilla fans have long been obsessed with Ramos, and there are two historical grudges. The first is the entanglement of leaving the team 18 years ago, and the second is the emotional outburst 6 years ago.
On the last day of the summer window in 2005, Real Madrid paid 27 million euros to sign 19-year-old Ramos. Behind the transfer, however, is the disagreement of the senior management of the team, the fans and the players themselves. Due to the long time, the specific details have been difficult to verify, but it is undeniable that because of this transfer, the relationship between Ramos and Sevilla has created a rift.
In the words of the team's president Denildo, Ramos himself, who was a "child's dream", insisted on promoting the transfer, and even reached the point of paying liquidated damages out of his own pocket. The fans who did not know what to do, naturally, could not forgive Ramos for leaving the team and leaving the capital.
But according to Ramos, Denildo's rhetoric was nothing more than a cover-up after the team made the decision to list him for sale. He completed the transfer after Real Madrid reached an agreement with Sevilla and did not call the shots.
In addition, in Sevilla's local media reports, Ramos was unfairly treated by the club's senior management when negotiating the contract. His demand for a salary increase was rudely denounced by Denierdo as "a youth player should never want to make a lot of money here". Cristobal Soria, the team manager at the time, even revealed that Ramos, who was young at the time, "left the stadium crying" more than once after talks with the chairman.
Despite the mixed opinions, although Ramos still has feelings for his parent team, and most fans are not hesitant to applaud the pride of the former youth academy at home, in the eyes of a few extreme fans, he is already a betrayal of the team. Until January 2017, a highly controversial match tore off the veil of warmth between the two sides.
In the second leg of the 2016-17 Copa del Rey 1/8 final, Real Madrid away to Sevilla. The home team, who lost three goals away from home in the first leg, launched a frantic comeback with the blessing of Pizjuan's mountain roar, and by the 83rd minute, Sevilla FC were leading 3-1 at home.
Seeing that the turnaround was in sight, at this moment, the current referee Raos awarded Real Madrid a controversial penalty. Picking up the ball and walking to the twelve-yard point was Ramos, who was wrapped around the Armband of the Real Madrid captain at the time.
Ramos was facing the stands, where members of the extremist fan organization "Bilis" gathered. Amid boos and abuse, Ramos used a light spoon penalty to break through the goal guarded by Soria. In the eyes of the home team fans, such a four-two pound is tantamount to a provocation or even an insult.
After the more lethal goal, Ramos also put his hands to his ears and made a provocative gesture of celebration at the agitated diehard stands.
Sevilla's extreme fans also responded with insulting gestures and even harsher boos. Since then, Ramos and Seville's relationship has broken down, and the pride of his own youth training, wrapped in extreme emotions, has since been regarded as a traitor and public enemy.
Since then, whenever Ramos visited Pizjuán as a visiting player, he was met with boos and abuse from the home team's fans. What's worse, as the family of Sevilla fans, they have rarely stepped into this stadium since then under great pressure from public opinion.
In 2021, Ramos spoke about it in a personal documentary. He said that his actions were only insults from a few extremists and were not aimed at most Sevilla fans.
However, the strong emphasis on loyal home team fans did not choose to forgive this. In their opinion, what is the difference between Ramos' provocative celebration and Adebayo's galloping against the old master, and Bonucci smiling and roaring at Juventus?
[Why is he treated differently?] 】
He doesn't understand why Alves, Negredo, Rakitic and former colleague and friend Keylor Navas are treated with godly courtesy when they return to the Pizjuán Stadium as away players. And what is left for oneself is only invective and confrontation. It was part of an opinion piece by Seville local media outlet Estadio Deportivo when Ramos returned.
Leaving aside the entanglement of the transfer and the provocative farce, the fatal reason why Ramos was treated differently by local fans may be that his career in Pizjuan really lacked enough highlights. None of the 28 career titles was won while wearing a red and white jersey.
In contrast, Rakitic captained the Europa League in 2013-14 before moving to Barca. Before moving to Manchester City, Keylor Navas led the team to two UEFA Cups, two Copa del Rey, one UEFA Super League and one Western Super Cup.
What is even more remarkable is that in the 2005-06 season, it was after Ramos left the team that Navas, as one of the banners of the team's youth training, lifted the first continental trophy in the team's history. As a result, the divergence of local fans' impressions of Keylor Navas and Ramos has inevitably become more and more obvious.
In terms of historical status, Ramos is definitely above Rakitic and Keylor Navas, but in terms of Sevilla's seat, Ramos, who lacks a championship in his red and white career, is indeed difficult to match the "god-like status" of the latter two in the hearts of local fans.
In addition, Keylor Navas and Rakitic have more than enough to do after Sevilla, who have worked hard to regain the Europa League in 2019-20 and 2022-23 respectively.
Whether Ramos, whose physical function and competitive condition have declined significantly in the past two years, can win back the recognition and support of fans after his return, so as to completely untie each other's hearts, depends on actual performance to prove.
[Why did he make this decision?] 】
Resentment and coolness are ahead, and what makes Ramos, after years of wandering, finally make the decision to return home?
On the one hand, as Ramos said, it is for his family and his deceased friend Puerta. "I owe it to my grandfather, my father, to Puerta and the Sevilla fans, and now I have to pay it." Ramos said emotionally, "My grandfather became a Sevilla fan when I was a child and took me by the hand to the Pisjuan stadium to support the team. My dad made my dream of making my Sevilla debut come true. "Ramos's life has all the emotional ties that have been linked to the Sevilla team.
As for Ramos' friendship with Puerta, it is even more moving. When he was in the Sevilla echelon, Puerta was the big brother who carried Ramos. After Puerta's unexpected death in 2007, Ramos took off his shirt after scoring a La Liga goal with the inscription: "Puerta, good brother, we will not forget you". In the national team, Ramos has never taken off the number 15 shirt worn by the former, and he also wears white short sleeves with Puerta's head and the words "Always Together" after winning the championship as a memorial to his old friend.
Now, Ramos's wandering son has returned home, and it is also another consolation to the spirit of the deceased in heaven.
On the other hand, Sevilla, which is financially strained, really needs a veteran like Ramos to stabilize the military.
In the opening three rounds of La Liga, Sevilla suffered three consecutive defeats and conceded eight goals. After the loss of Diego Carlos and Conde last summer, the team has not been able to make commensurate matches, and even required former TEDA and Evergrande midfielder Goodley to make frequent guest appearances in the defensive backbone. Sevilla, who are about to face the test of the Champions League, are in desperate need of a centre-back who can help athletically and is not too demanding financially.
Ramos, who was idle after his contract with Grand Paris expired and was a youth graduate of the team, naturally became a suitable choice. The former Paris centre-back's €1 million annual salary after tax will not add an additional burden to the club's finances.
A few days before the dust settled, there were rumors that Ramos would go to Saudi Arabia to pan for gold, and it was also reported that he received an olive branch from the American team. Even, he has already agreed with one of the teams, but a phone call from Sevilla rewrites the trajectory of fate.
"I cried," at the moment of receiving the call, tears of excitement crossed Ramos's already somewhat vicissitudes face, and instantly expressed the tenderness in the heart of the iron man, "This is really an indescribable emotion." ”
In any case, after 18 years of absence, the Andalusian teenager is once again at the beginning of his dream.