Nearly 20 years on from his Sevilla debut, having turned down approaches from Manchester United and the Saudi Pro League along the way, Sergio Ramos is back where it all began
Nineteen years ago this weekend, when Sergio Ramos and Jesus Navas lined up for Sevilla as they took on Mallorca, the prospect of them sharing the same pitch nearly two decades later was hardly the first thing on people’s minds.
That match at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan was a relatively uneventful one, with a Julio Baptista own goal costing Sevilla all three points after Antonio Lopez’s opener. However, it was a season in which Joaquin Caparros’ team – buoyed by the input of homegrown talents Ramos and Navas in breakout seasons – set themselves up for the following season’s UEFA Cup triumph.
Ramos played no part in that European trophy run, having left for Real Madrid in 2005. The former Madrid and Spain captain is now back where it started, though, and says the decision to return was an easy one.
“Sevilla gave it all to me,” Ramos says. “Sevilla trained me as a footballer, to be able to play in the first division for the very first time, and since then there is something I’ve felt from within. I’ve felt these colours.
“When this was proposed to me, coming back home, this was a personal decision that I felt from within. Obviously, this was my first option because I wanted to come back to close a cycle.
“I wanted to see that all the love I feel for people, is something that’s reciprocated. It’s been an unforgettable moment for me and this is something I’d recommend to anybody that embarked on their career in their home town, and I’m enjoying it every day. every training session and every game.”
Ramos isn’t the only familiar face back at the club, of course. His former team-mate Navas is several years into his own second spell at Sevilla, while Ivan Rakitic – part of the 2014 Europa League winning squad – rejoined from Barcelona in 2020.
Navas and Rakitic both tasted success last season, as Sevilla added to their record tally of Europa League trophies, with Navas captaining the side in the final and Rakitic converting his penalty in a shoot-out victory over Roma. Ramos won plenty for club and country, including the 2010 World Cup with Spain and multiple Champions Leagues with Real Madrid, but makes it clear that lifting a trophy in Sevilla colours would be just as important to him if not more so.
The theme of returning heroes is one that vice president Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco recognises as well. However, he is quick to stress Ramos, Navas and Rakitic all returned with different stories to tell.
“I think Jesus Navas is a footballer who has probably played the most matches for Sevilla Football Club,” Del Nido Carrasco says. “He’s similar to what the definition of what Sevilla Football Club is – when we’re talking about sports performance at Sevilla, he’s probably one of our best players in history, and he started his very first days with us.
“Ivan Rakitic is a player who seems he was born in Seville, even though he [is from] Croatia. He had great performances in his first phase and then went to FC Barcelona where I think he won almost everything, and then he came back to Sevilla and it’s like it’s his home.
“Now we go back to Sergio, I think he’s on a different level. Sergio is one of the national athletes who has been probably the most important in the history of Spanish sports. Like Jesus [Navas], I think that they’re both world champions.
“As I say, they both started in our academy and I think it has been a really good thing to get these footballers back. People say that the second attempt is never that good, but I think in Jesus, Ivan and Sergio’s attempts, I think we can prove that differently. I think their return to the club has been very good.”
Despite last season’s European success, recent campaigns have not been without challenges for Sevilla. The club are onto their third manager since Julen Lopetegui left early in the 2022-23 season, and spent almost the entirety of last season in the bottom half of the league table – a position they also occupy ahead of this weekend’s meeting with Celta Vigo.
Ramos, too, has had a couple of years in which he might feel he doesn’t live up to his high standards. He may have won back-to-back league titles with Paris Saint-Germain, but injuries limited him to 45 league games in two seasons, and the four-time Champions League winner was unable to add further European glory with Les Parisiens.
Come the summer, there was interest from Saudi Arabia, where former teammates including Karim Benzema and Neymar now ply their trade. As soon as he learned Sevilla were interested, though, the decision was a no-brainer.
“This was a debt I had to my club, to Sevilla, the first team where I triumphed,” he says. “This is also a personal debt towards my family, my parents, my grandparents.”
Ramos invokes the names of Antonio Puerta and Jose Antonio Reyes, two Sevilla heroes who died tragically young. This is about passion and emotion, not money or a quest for trophies above all else, though further success with his hometown club would be the cherry on top of the cake.
“This is a very personal decision, a decision made with the heart,” he explains. “It was the ideal time to do this and I never thought about the option of going anywhere else when the opportunity of coming here came up.
“When one makes a decision with one’s heart I think things can go better or worse. but it’s the right decision nevertheless. And I am enjoying, as I said, every single day, every game, every match, enjoying it with the fans and feeling what this club is about.
“Before I close my cycle and my professional career as a footballer, I wanted to close this cycle with my fans, with my home, with my family. As I said back in the day, I could die peacefully now because I have won many things and the only thing I need to do now is win something with Sevilla.”
This summer wasn’t the first time Ramos has needed to think long and hard about an offer from overseas, of course. Back in 2015, long before his move from Real Madrid to Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United came calling.
It was a transitional time for United, who were looking to move on after the departures of long-serving centre-backs Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, and they felt Ramos was the man for the job. The player describes his father as a “great fan” of the English club, but ultimately he stayed in Madrid and signed a long-term contract that very summer before proceeding to win three successive Champions League trophies.
“I stayed where I should have stayed, Real Madrid, but I was indeed close to playing for United,” he recalls. “It was not to be, but I do keep that admiration for the club, to the Premier League and the players, because the rhythm of play, the pace is different, and it’s a league we can all learn a great deal from, all of us. So that was not meant to be. I was glad to stay in Madrid, and now I’m glad to be in Sevilla.”
Of course, Ramos’ role at the club now is very different to the one he occupied in his first spell. Back then, he was one of the youngsters who benefited from the guidance of senior stars, and he recognises the onus is now on him to fill the role played by those who showed him what it means to represent Sevilla.
“I think us, the veterans, have the obligation in a way of helping the younger ones so they find the right way to create good habits and help them in difficult times, both on the pitch and outside on a personal level,” he says. “I think we all have had an older brother in the world of football, and we the veterans must play that role, to play the role of parent and older brother to help the youngsters evolve. And they need time, so they can adapt and they can give their very best.
“When I started there was Pablo Alfaro, Javi Navarro, Dario Silva, Renato, there were veteran players in that team that taught me a great deal – what had to be done and what had to not be done. Everyone had their personality and habits and goals, but I think the veteran players must always be… how can I put it… they’ve always played a role, an important role, in the progression of the youngsters, and this is what they’ve helped me with. This is the legacy, a legacy we must continue to convey to the younger ones, and now it is up to me, to us, 20 years later.”
While some things have changed, though, others remain the same. He is enjoying the little things, like running into some of the same people at the dry cleaners 18 years on, and bigger ones like reigniting his bond with the “special” population of his home city.
The last 18 years have seen Sevilla deliver plenty of success, and some of this has been built on the back of developing players and selling them in order to rebuild. Ramos is one such example, as was former Arsenal star Reyes before him and Spurs winger Bryan Gil after, and Del Nido Carrasco is grateful to the fans who he says have come to understand this need.
A great relationship between player and club can’t be forced, though, and Ramos has remained a fan even when playing his club football elsewhere. This has made it easier for him to return to an environment where a lot – but also nothing – has changed.
” I have dear friends here, people whom I’ve known at the club for many years, and I’ve met them again now that I’m back,” he says. “It’s a very personal feeling, and I really enjoy the day-to-day.