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Sergio Ramos has decided to call time on his 16-year career with the Spanish national team
Spanish legend Sergio Ramos has decided to retire from the Spanish national team after an unfavourable discussion with the new Spain boss, Luis de la Fuente.
Ramos announced his decision via Twitter, saying that he felt forced to retire from the national team due to his age and would have loved to continue representing La Roja but had not been given the chance.
Part of his statement read, “I received a call from the current Head Coach who informed me that I am not and will not be part of his plans, regardless of how I perform or what I do in my career.
“With a heavy heart, it’s the end of a road that I hoped would stretch out further and which would end with a better taste in my mouth, on a par with all the success we achieved with La Roja.
Ramos believes that the reason he is being jettisoned by de la Fuente is his age, and he also took time to state that he did not agree that just his age should be enough reason to end his career with the national team.
He said. “I honestly believe that this journey deserved to end at my own choosing or because my performances were not at a level worthy of our national team. Not due to a question of age or other reasons.”
Ramos cited examples of players within his age range who have still been able to command a place in their national teams and stated that he was jealous of those players and had hoped that he would have been able to remain as important to Spain as they were to their national teams.
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“I admire and envy players like Modric, Messi and Pepe. They are the essence of tradition, values, meritocracy, and justice in football. Unfortunately, it won't be like that for me because football isn’t always fair and football is never just football.” Ramos added.
Sergio Ramos: La Roja legend
Sergio Ramos is a living legend of the Spanish national team, having represented them on 180 occasions. He holds the record the record for the most appearances in the Spanish national team and is second only to Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of all-time national team appearances in Europe.
Ramos made his debut for Spain at the age of 18 years and 361 days and was the youngest player to represent La Roja for 55 years at the time of his debut.
He went on to represent Spain at nine major international tournaments in the span of his 16 years with the national team and was part of the all-conquering team that won the Euros in 2008, World Cup in 2010, and the Euros again in 2012.
Sergio Ramos is the last player from the World Cup-winning side to retire from international football.
Ramos would have represented Spain in more tournaments, but was left out of the squad for the 2020 Euros despite battling from an injury to regain fitness, and also the 2022 World Cup where Spain exited at the second round.
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