Nivea’s Sergio Ramos: The relentless winner at the heart of Real Madrid

Sergio Ramos has won it all in football.

He boasts the kind of resume and honours list that very few players in the world game can ever hope to achieve, having conquered every obstacle in front of him since signing for Real Madrid in 2005.

He’s won five Spanish titles with Los Merengues—clinching the fifth earlier this year—and has also been a part of four Champions League-winning sides following his arrival from Sevilla.

There isn’t another competition he’s been in with Real that he hasn’t won, having got his hands on the Copa del Rey, the Spanish Super Cup, the Uefa Super Cup and the Club World Cup since he arrived in the Spanish capital 15 years ago.

At international level, it’s been a similar story, with the elegant defender becoming one of La Roja’s greatest ever players since first making his name with the U19 team and then making his debut in 2005 before his 19th birthday.

At the time, he was the youngest player to represent Spain for over half a century, but the show of faith from the national team selectors was well rewarded.

In the intervening years, Ramos has won a World Cup—Spain’s first in 2010—and been part of two European Championship-winning squads.

He reached a century of Spain caps seven years ago, and is comfortably the country’s most capped player of all time. With 175 appearances for the national side, he could well reach 200 outings for La Roja over the coming years.

What makes Ramos such a key figure both for the national team and for Real is his relentless desire to win and his unswerving winning mentality.

Admittedly, it hasn’t made him a completely beloved figure among opposition fans, but who could forget that late, late equaliser in the Champions League final of 2014 as Atletico Madrid were dispatched in Lisbon.

In that fixture, against their fierce city rivals, trailing after Diego Godin’s opener, with La Decima on the line, all hope appeared lost, but in the 93rd minute, Ramos stood up and ended the 12-year wait for European gold.

Some players, having achieved as much as Ramos has in the game, would have allowed their desire for silverware dim slightly. After all, here’s a player who has made Uefa’s Team of the Year on eight occasions…what more is there for him to achieve?!

However, as the years wear on, and Ramos enters his mid-30s, he shows little sign of slowing down.

Despite a questionable disciplinary record and a whopping 26 career red cards, the mental side of his game—his reading of dangerous situations, defensive positioning, and anticipation—are elite, while his physicality and athleticism help him get the better of most strikers.

He’s not one to rest on his laurels, and gladly puts his body on the line for the benefit of the team; it doesn’t matter if it’s a cup game against lower league opponents, or the Champions League final, Ramos is willing to sacrifice for the team.

For almost every one of those red cards, however, there’s been a major trophy, and while Ramos isn’t everyone’s cup of tea—just ask Liverpool fans—he is destined to go down as one of the game’s enduring figures and one of the finest defenders in sport’s history.

For Real Madrid fans, he’s something more, a symbol of a glorious era, and a mark of consistency, elegance and victory that encapsulates the club’s identity.