Paris Saint-Germain central defender Sergio Ramos announced on Thursday that he is ending his international career at the age of 36 after new Spain coach Luis De la Fuente informed him that he was no longer in his plans.
Sergio Ramos, central defender at Paris Saint-Germain, announced this Thursday via a press release published on his social networks to end his international career. Ramos, who is the most capped player in La Roja’s history after playing 180 appearances for the national team, adds that he is leaving “with a heavy heart” and that he would have liked to retire international “with less bitterness”.
“The time has come to say goodbye to the Spanish national team,” he wrote in a statement posted in Spanish and English on his social networks. “This (Thursday) morning, he explains, I received a call from the current coach who informed me that I am no longer part of his plans, and that I will no longer be part of it, whatever whether I perform or what I do with my career.”
“Heavy Heart”
Ramos, who had his first selection in 2005 in a friendly match against China, was one of the executives of the team which dominated world football for eight years, achieving an unprecedented sequence of Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012.
“With a heavy heart, it’s the end of a journey that I would have hoped to extend further and which would have ended with less bitterness, up to all the successes we have had with La Roja”, he continues. . In 180 selections, the central defender, passed by Real Madrid, scored 23 goals. His last selection match dates back to March 2021, against Kosovo, in the World Cup qualifiers in Qatar.
Absent from the World Cup in Qatar
Insufficiently recovered from an injury, he had not been to Qatar, where Spain were eliminated by Morocco in the round of 16, a failure which precipitated the replacement of Luis Enrique by De la Fuente. In his press release, Ramos highlights the performance of his teammate Lionel Messi, world champion with Argentina at 35, Croatian Luka Modric (37) or Portuguese Pepe (39).
“I humbly believe that my career deserved to end on my personal decision or because my performances would no longer have been at the level required by the national selection, and not because of my age or other reasons that, even if they weren’t clearly explained to me, I felt good,” he said.
Source: Europe1
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