Why Sergio Ramos’ return to Seville derby promises fireworks

“I remember it as a dream come true, the chance to play in the most important game there is when you’re growing up.” There had been 18 minutes left when Sergio Ramos was despatched on to the pitch for his first Seville derby. He was 17 years outdated, solely 4 video games into his seniour profession, and he had a job to do: do not let Real Betis striker Dani transfer.

Sevilla had been a person down away on the Benito Villamarin, outnumbered on and off the pitch. It was tense, robust, scorching — the way in which the derby is supposed to be — and he did precisely as he was instructed. Not least as a result of he hardly wanted to be instructed. This was simply him.

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It was time for a bit of intimidation, a child taking it to the person. No concern, not from him. He was a teen, unknown, however he did not care. Instead, Ramos did what Ramos does. What he would do time and again in a novel thousand-game profession that is nonetheless not completed, now again the place all of it started. That was Feb. 2004. This Sunday night on the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, 18 years and 28 main trophies since his third and final derby in May 2005, twice the age now, he’ll play one other one in opposition to Betis, the rivals he was raised with. This summer season, that child got here residence.

“I would recommend it to anyone,” he says.

“Sevilla saw me born, it formed me, made me a footballer in the first place and I always had a feeling inside that was Sevilla. I wanted to live this, to close the circle. I wanted to come home, for the people here to have the same affection for me that I had for them. I had options elsewhere, such as Saudi Arabia, but I had a debt to the club, my parents, my grandparents, Antonio Puerta and Jose Antonio Reyes. It was an emotional decision, a passion. Once the chance to go to Sevilla became real, I didn’t even think about anything else. There are things that money doesn’t move, only feeling can.”

“It could have gone well, it could have gone badly, but if you take a decision with your heart, it will always be the right decision,” Ramos provides.

Ramos is 37 now, and if loads has modified, loads hasn’t. Starting with him. “Back then, I would sweat in interviews; now I can lean back and enjoy it,” he says, placing his palms behind his head like a person taking life simple. “But I still live football the same way; I have the same mentality I came into Sevilla with. I have had the chance to win a lot and learn; the only difference between me now and 20 years ago is the experience. But I still get up every day and want to win, as I always did.”

That interview line could not even be completely true — the one the place he posed sporting nothing however a well-positioned pair of trainers hung spherical his neck confirmed that he had guts, even then. And in addition to, there’s a purpose he’s the one one left from that derby day, a purpose he returns not simply having performed numerous video games however having received each trophy there’s, a World Cup and European championship winner, the captain who lifted the European Cup, essentially the most capped participant in Spain’s historical past; one thing in him that’s nonetheless there and at all times was. His is the triumph of character in addition to high quality, completely different from the beginning.

Look on the line-ups from that first derby and really feel the nostalgia wash over you, one other period: Denilson, Julio Baptista, Dani Alves, Alfonso, Dario Silva. Even Joaquín has lastly bidden farewell. Gone now. Jesús Navas continues to be there having been away and are available again, it’s true, however he was a teen then and did not play. Ramos did, his approach.

If Ramos turned the final word comedian guide captain, one thing virtually cartoonish about him, it’s as a result of he at all times was. “He was a sinverguenza, in the best possible sense,” says the Sevilla goalkeeper that derby day, Esteban Suarez. Sinverguenza does not translate all that effectively. It means he had no disgrace, no concern and no doubts. He was a scoundrel you wished in your workforce, robust as outdated boots. Chest out, all proud, he wasn’t going to again down for anybody.

On Thursdays, Sevilla would play full 11-a-side video games in coaching and the child known as up to be a part of them was fierce, ultra-competitive and never petrified of anybody. He would fly into the veterans as in the event that they had been opponents, as in the event that they performed for Betis.

“I had Pablo Alfaro, Javi Navarro, Dario Silva, Renato, players who acted as my godfathers, who taught me: they showed me what you have to do and what you don’t, although all players have their own personality,” Ramos remembers. “Every older player has a role to play with the kids. I had that from them and that legacy is one that I have to pass on to the younger players now.”

Alfaro and Navarro had been completely pretty guys, excellent “parents,” one former participant insists; they had been additionally arduous as nails, a dwelling instance of profiting from the whole lot you’ve gotten. Joaquin Caparros, the coach, was robust too, all blood and thunder. He took Ramos to one facet and instructed him by no means to draw back, by no means to let the seniour gamers push him about or intimidate him, as if that was ever going to occur. Quite the other.

In one session on the very begin, younger Ramos clattered into Carlitos. A veteran who was 10 years Ramos’ seniour in his third spell on the membership, Carlitos was the form of man you respect. He confronted {the teenager}. What did he assume he was doing? Who did he assume he was? They squared up, the same old factor. The veteran warned this child: there can be phrases within the dressing room. Well, okay then. When the session completed they usually headed again inside, Ramos approached him, chest out: so, about that phrase… Carlitos backed off saying it was all a joke, simply messing round.

Battle one, received.

There can be many extra. “I remember his debut in Coruna,” Esteban says. “He makes these two tackles. Not out of control, not a kid who doesn’t know how to go in, no. An announcement: ‘I am Sergio Ramos and this is what I do.’ He had incredible physical strength, technically he was very good. He would stay behind and practice free kicks, penalties, and everything. And personality; he learnt from Pablo and Javi, who were very important for him, but that character came as standard. When kids come through the academy at Sevilla there’s a special daring about them. Set yourself a target and just do it. He was brave, fearless.”

Soon he was gone, moved to Real Madrid for €27m. 18 years later, when most have walked away completely, nothing left to win, nothing left to give, he’s again. An emblem, his affect goes past the sphere, by no means extra related than this weekend, which is the whole lot on this metropolis.

“Ramos is on a different level, he is one of the most important sportsmen in Spain’s history, a World Cup winner, like Navas, who came through our youth system,” says the Sevilla vice-president Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco. “There’s a phrase that says sequels are never any good but this time the opposite is true, with him, Navas and Ivan Rakitic. He and Navas were raised by the Utrera road [where Sevilla’s training ground is], and it is important to have people like that who feel Sevilla, who have the values of the academy, who understand the idiosyncrasy of the city and club, who know what Seville is, what the derby is. They can educate the other players, showing them what this club means.”

And that’s associated, Del Nido Carrasco says, to what the opposite workforce means, to this essentially the most particular rivalry in Spain. “We’re extroverts. Sevilla is a passionate city, expressed in its culture: in the April Fair, in Easter week, in football. And it is a dual city. Sometimes you ask yourself what Sevilla would be without Betis, what Betis would be without Sevilla? We have almost 100,000 season ticket holders between us. If there was only one team, would it have 100,000 season ticket holders? Would it be Madrid or Barcelona?”

Del Nido Carrasco provides: “Perhaps not, perhaps there would not be the same passion if there was just one team. Maybe it would only have the 40,000, 50,000 we have each now. Sevilla is very important for Betis and Betis is very important for Sevilla. The passion here is created by and lived through the rivalry; that’s what gives both clubs such huge followings; it is as if they were a religious belief, a way of life. This is a city that needs the jokes, the talk, the banter.”

“It’s more than just a game; it’s emotional, sentimental,” Ramos says. “It’s a game when the result lasts four or five months, until the next time when you get the chance for revenge. It’s a game that represents all the good things that football is. I remember the excitement when I played my first. When you’re in the academy, it’s always the most important. Sevillanos are a bit special. To understand the way we live, you have to be from here. They say we’re mad, but the link between the city and the team is deep. There’s an essence here; Sevilla smells different, it has a special colour. We feel it. This is a city that is divided in two — and my family’s case was always on the red and white side.”

He had lived surrounded by it too. As they are saying in Spain, Ramos had suckled on Sevilla, been raised on it; and if gamers have departed, Navas apart, others stay. He has been and gone and are available again, reunited with them. “I have good friends at the club still, people I have known for a long time,” Ramos says. “I celebrated from a distance when they won. I left a side that were mid-table and come back to one of the biggest teams in Europe; that growth is the path we have to keep following. I have won a lot and all that’s missing for me was the chance to win something with Sevilla.”

“It’s a lovely feeling to come back, to see them every day. It’s one thing to say ‘that’s my home,’ another for it to genuinely be your home again, to feel that the Pizjuan is your ground, that this is your badge. There are few things to compare with the way I feel each day when I get to the training ground. To see the same lady in the laundry who was there 20 years ago, to feel that this is home, comforts your soul,” says Ramos.

“Whatever else you can experience elsewhere, that is special. I wanted to come back and build my relationship with Sevilla above all. I feel at home, I wanted to finish it with my fans, my home, my family. I can die a happy man now. Sometimes to grow you have to go but you never forget where you are from, never forget your roots, never feel shame for who you are.”