Sergio Ramos García (; born 30 March 1986) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back. Widely regarded as one of the greatest centre-backs of all time, he is known for his aerial abilities, physicality, leadership, and goalscoring abilities, having scored more than 100 goals for Real Madrid. In addition, he is one of the few players to have made over 1,000 career appearances.
Born in Camas in the Spanish province of Seville, Ramos played in Sevilla's youth academy and spent two seasons with the senior team, before moving to Real Madrid in the summer of 2005. He went on to become a mainstay for the club, winning 22 major honours, including five La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles. He was vital to all of the Champions League winning campaigns, as he was named in the competition's Team of the Season each time. Out of contract with Real Madrid, he signed for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain in July 2021, spending two seasons at the club and winning Ligue 1 twice, before returning to Sevilla for one season. After leaving Sevilla, Ramos joined Liga MX side Monterrey, where he captained the team and played in the inaugural edition of the expanded FIFA Club World Cup.
Internationally, Ramos represented Spain from 2005 to 2021, playing at four FIFA World Cups (winning the 2010 edition) and three UEFA European Championships (winning titles in 2008 and 2012). With 180 caps earned across sixteen years, he is the nation's record appearance holder.
Club career Sevilla Born in Camas, province of Seville, Andalusia, Ramos started playing at Camas CF by age six, then he began his career at local side Sevilla, emerging through the club's youth system alongside Jesús Navas and Antonio Puerta. He made his first-team and La Liga debut on 1 February 2004, coming on as a 64th-minute substitute for Paco Gallardo in a 0–1 away loss against Deportivo La Coruña.
In the 2004–05 season, Ramos appeared in 41 games as Sevilla finished sixth and qualified to the 2005–06 UEFA Cup, scoring in home fixtures against Real Sociedad (2–1) and Real Madrid (2–2). In the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, he scored his first continental goal, heading to conclude a 2–0 win over Nacional at the Ramon Sánchez Pizjuán in the first round (4–1 aggregate).
Real Madrid 2005–09: Record transfer and early days
In the summer of 2005, Ramos was purchased by Real Madrid for €27 million, a record for a Spanish defender. He was the only Spanish player brought in during Florentino Pérez's first stint as Real Madrid’s president.
At the club, Ramos was assigned the number 4 shirt, previously worn by Fernando Hierro. On 6 December 2005 he netted his first goal for the Meringues, in a 2–1 UEFA Champions League group stage loss at Olympiacos.
During his first seasons, Ramos played as centre back, being also used as an emergency defensive midfielder on occasion. However, with the arrival of Christoph Metzelder and Pepe in the 2007–08 season, he was again relocated to right back. In his first four seasons at Real Madrid, Ramos displayed a goalscoring instinct unusual to many defenders, netting more than 20 goals overall. He also received the first nine of his 24 red cards for the club, including four in his debut season. His first red card came after two bookable offences in a 1–0 away loss to Espanyol on 18 September 2005.
During the 2006–07 season, Ramos scored five goals, including one in a 3–3 El Clásico draw with Barcelona, as Real Madrid won a record 30th league title.
On 4 May 2008, he assisted Gonzalo Higuaín in the 89th minute against Osasuna in an eventual 2–1 away win, the match that sealed the club's 31st league championship. On the final day of the season, he scored twice in a 5–2 home win against already relegated Levante: one through a header, and another an individual effort; these goals taking his league tally for the 2007–08 season to five.
On 24 August 2008, Ramos scored in the 2008 Supercopa de España second leg against Valencia, making the score 2–1 in an eventual 4–2 and 6–5 aggregate win. The victory came despite Real Madrid playing with only nine men for a long period of time after Rafael van der Vaart and Ruud van Nistelrooy were sent off. Although Ramos experienced a slight dip in form during the early part of the 2008–09 season, he returned to his best and on 11 January 2009, scoring an acrobatic volley in a 3–0 triumph at Mallorca. He continued his scoring run the following week in a 3–1 home win against Osasuna.
Ramos was named in both FIFA and UEFA's 2008 Team of the Year, adding the FIFPro Team of the Year 2007–08 accolade. He also finished 21st in the European Player of the Year nomination for 2008.Chelsea readying mammoth €40 million swoop for Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos ; Goal.com, 23 August 2010
2009–14: Breakout and team mainstay At the start of the 2009–10 season, Ramos was appointed as one of Real Madrid's four captains. Because Pepe had suffered a serious knee injury during this campaign, Ramos was often deployed as central defender. He scored four goals in 33 league matches; and, on 21 February 2010 he played his 200th official match for Los Blancos against Villarreal (150 in the first division). Despite these personal highlights, Real Madrid finished the campaign without picking up any silverware.
In Real Madrid's 5–0 loss at Barcelona on 29 November 2010, Ramos was sent off after kicking Lionel Messi from behind, then pushing Carles Puyol in the ensuing melée. After this ejection, he equalled Fernando Hierro's previous record of ten red cards at the club, despite having played in 264 fewer games.Sergio Ramos ya ha igualado las diez tarjetas rojas de Fernando Hierro (Sergio Ramos equals Fernando Hierro's record of ten red cards) ; Resultados-Futbol On 20 April 2011, Ramos started in the season's Copa del Rey final, a 1–0 win against Barcelona in Valencia. In the subsequent victory procession, while celebrating on the top of the club's bus, he accidentally lost hold of the cup, which fell under the wheels of the vehicle; the trophy was dented as a result.
On 12 July 2011, Ramos extended his contract with Real Madrid until 2017. The following 25 April, in the Champions League semi-finals' second leg against Bayern Munich, he missed his penalty shootout attempt as Real Madrid lost 3–1; the league campaign ended with them winning, with a record 100 points, after a four-year wait and he was the player with most balls recovered in his team, third overall.
On 9 January 2013, Ramos was sent off for a second bookable offense midway through the second half of an eventual 4–0 home win over Celta Vigo in the 2012–13 Copa del Rey. He subsequently received a four-match suspension, after it was revealed he also insulted referee Miguel Ángel Ayza Gámez. The following month, mere minutes after scoring the second goal at home against Rayo Vallecano and less than 20 minutes into the first half, he received two yellow cards within one minute in the eventual 2–0 home success, taking his red card tally with Real Madrid alone to 16; and 12 in the league.
In late February/early March 2013, due to the absence of Iker Casillas due to injury, Ramos captained Real to back-to-back wins over Barcelona in just four days: he netted the 2–1 home winner in the second game, heading home after a corner kick.
2013–14: Red card record and La Décima On 14 December 2013, Ramos received a club record 18th red card for Real Madrid in a 2–2 draw at Osasuna, but the suspension was later lifted.
His 19th red card came in a 4–3 home defeat to Barcelona, on 23 March 2014. On 26 April, Ramos scored a header against Osasuna in La Liga at the Bernabéu, in a counter-attack which he began with a strong tackle. It was his first goal in La Liga in six months, since his volley against Levante on match-day 8. On 29 April 2014, Ramos scored two headers in four minutes in a 4–0 away win against Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the Champions League, with the tie ending with a 5–0 aggregate score and Madrid's qualification to the final for the first time in twelve years. Ramos's brace against Bayern (4 minutes) was the fastest brace in UEFA Champions League semi-final history at the time.
On 4 May, Ramos scored in the 2–2 draw with Valencia at home in La Liga with another header, scoring in back-to-back league games. Three days later, Ramos scored his first free-kick for a 1–1 draw away to Valladolid, having scored in three consecutive La Liga matches and scoring four consecutive matches for Real Madrid for the first time. On 24 May, in the Champions League final against Atlético Madrid, he headed home in the 93rd minute to tie the game 1–1, and Real Madrid went on to win 4–1 in extra-time to claim 'La Decima', their tenth trophy in the competition; he was also chosen by fans as Man of the match. Ramos ended 2013–14 with 7 goals, which made it his highest scoring season for Real Madrid at the time.
2014–20: Sustained success and captaincy Ramos started 2014–15 season on 12 August 2014 by playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 win against Sevilla to win their first trophy of the season, the UEFA Super Cup. He then played the two-legged Supercopa de España final against Atlético Madrid with Los Blancos losing 2–1 on aggregate. Ramos scored his first goal of the season on 31 August in week two of La Liga, a header in a 4–2 away loss against Real Sociedad. Ramos scored his 50th Real Madrid goal which came off his knee on 8 November against Rayo Vallecano at the Bernabéu in La Liga as Real Madrid won 5–1.
He scored in both the semi-final and the final of the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup and was voted the Player of the Match in both as Real Madrid won the tournament in Morocco. Ramos was also voted the player of the tournament, winning the Golden Ball.
Ramos agreed a new five-year contract with Real Madrid in August 2015, tying him to the club until 2020. He was also made captain after the transfer of Casillas to Porto. On 8 November, Ramos scored his first goal of the season away to Sevilla. In scoring with an overhead kick he was forced to be substituted due to landing on his injured left shoulder.
On 20 December 2015, Ramos captained Madrid to a 10–2 victory over Rayo Vallecano, the club's highest scoring La Liga victory in 55 years. The following 13 March, he received his 20th red card for Real Madrid in a 2–1 win over Las Palmas, having earlier scored the game's opening goal with a header from an Isco corner kick. On 2 April 2016, he returned from suspension in a 2–1 victory against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, where he was again sent off, receiving his 21st red card and fourth in a Clásico fixture.
Real Madrid reached the 2016 UEFA Champions League Final, where they faced Atlético Madrid. Ramos once again scored in a final, putting Real ahead in the first half. At the time, he was just the fifth player to score in two different Champions League Finals after Raúl, Samuel Eto'o, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. After a second-half equalizer from Atlético, he then scored a penalty in the shoot-out which resulted in Real Madrid winning 5–3; thus, he lifted his first UEFA Champions League trophy as a captain. According to author Michael Cox, he also notably "tipped the balance of the game toward Real Madrid" by tripping Yannick Carrasco up and stopping a three-on-one counter in stoppage time, with 30 seconds remaining and the score 1–1. He was named man of the match by UEFA after the game. By winning the final, Real Madrid earned the right to play against the winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League, Sevilla, in the 2016 UEFA Super Cup. Ramos ended the 2015–16 season with three goals in 33 games which was his lowest goal tally and the fewest matches he played in any season at Real Madrid till then, due to ongoing injuries.