When Real Madrid host Sevilla at the screaming, hostile Santiago Bernabéu on Sunday, it won't just be the LaLiga game of the weekend, it will also treat us to the spectacle of the return of football royalty Sergio Ramos.
The last time Ramos brought his unique brand of gladiatorial challenge to this powerful stadium as an opposing player, as he will do throughout The Red and Whites This weekend marked 20 years, again for Sevilla. Meanwhile, he earned the status of all-time Real Madrid legend.
From strong beginnings as the first Spaniard that Florentino Pérez signed, not an easy task in an era in which The whites'the president fainted just because Galactic Like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo or David Beckham, Ramos eventually made 469 appearances, won 22 trophies (including four Champions Leagues) and earned the most red cards of any LaLiga player. All this with perpetual swagger, an aggressive style of captaincy that is required in a club like Real Madrid.
– Stream live on ESPN+: Real Madrid vs. Seville (Sunday, 3 pm ET, US only)
Sunday will truly be the football version of the gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius returning to receive his adorable ovation from the Colosseum.
Given Ramos' tendency to produce the most audacious, belligerent and often ridiculous performances, there's every chance that, once Madrid fans have chanted their love for him, he'll score a header to give Sevilla the lead and kick Vinicius . in the air, instructing the referee on how to run the game “Sergio Ramos style”, scoring an own goal and being sent off before the final whistle. Well, something like that.
But Ramos isn't the only returning royal. The man in the Seville shelter – the guy who's starting to look like a British World War II commando now that he's sporting that big, bushy beard and turtlenecks – is a lesser-known, but still significant, part of the story. Royal hierarchy of Real Madrid.
That man is Quique Sánchez Flores, who took charge of Sevilla in December, becoming the club's third manager this season. And although he will try to achieve his first victory at the Bernabéu as an opposing coach since his Valencia team achieved the feat in October 2005, his place in the White HouseThe majestic firmament is not only permanent, but it is also a very colorful story.
His father, Isidro, was one of those rare creatures who was born in Barcelona (the family was trapped there due to the Spanish Civil War), but reached the heights at Real Madrid as an elegant right-back who won four LaLiga titles and played the final of the 1964 European Cup, defeating Internazionale 3-1. The names of Isidro's teammates may not mean much to you if football history is not your thing. But I assure you that with Paco Gento (to this day no one has lifted the Champions League more times than him), Ferenc Puskas and, above all, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Isidro played with three of the all-time greats of this sport. .
The most majestic was De Stefano. Many of those who saw him play live, including Sir Alex Ferguson, believe that the Argentine should be included, along with Lionel Messi, Pelé or Diego Maradona, in any debate about who was the greatest footballer of all time. Well, because of his friendship with Isidro, Di Stéfano became Quique's godfather, or godfather – sort of like if you were an actor who had been baptized as a baby with Robert De Niro holding you in his arms and there, in perpetuity, as a benign and powerful influence.
“It was like having a second father my whole life… when he gave advice it was always from the prism of a genius, because that's what he was, a true genius,” Sánchez Flores previously told Coaches Voice.
But it's not simply because your father won a league title or because the most important figure in the club's entire history is you. godfather that the current Sevilla coach still has a regal aura around him at Real Madrid. His mother, Carmen, was an exciting singer, dancer and actress, but his aunt, Lola, Carmen's sister, was a superstar. Think about the adoration Dolly Parton inspires and the showmanship of, say, Lady Gaga. Now you have it.
Now, I'm not trying to sell you on the idea that you go looking for his flamenco-based trumpet and castanet melodies; Just trust my word. Lola was a beloved star of epic proportions in Spain, Latin America and Miami, where she was given a lavish star-studded tribute in 1990.
So, let's put it all together: for young Quique, it was the modern equivalent of growing up a promising soccer player whose father was Michel Salgado, whose mother was Shania Twain, whose aunt was Dolly Parton and whose godfather was Raúl González Blanco. How do you like apples? (Quique is short for Enrique, so think of him as Henry if you want.)
Finally, when Quique was 29 years old, the icing on the cake arrived. After starring in Valencia, for his godfather, De Stefano, he moved to Real Madrid, and played 30 times in his first season for the team coached by Jorge Valdano, which ended Barcelona's “Dream Team” streak of four consecutive Spanish titles. Way to become popular at the Santiago Bernabéu, right?
It is a very nice addition, from the Madrid point of view, that Quique's first goal Classic at the Bernabéu it was the 5-0 defeat of Barcelona in January 1995: total blaugrana humiliation and euphoria Sánchez-Flores. It was helped by the fact that, at right-back, he had come up against recently crowned Ballon d'Or winner Hristo Stoichkov, who played on Barça's left wing.
So firm and relentless was our boy's marking and pressure that the Bulgarian lost his temper in the 45th minute, trampled Di Stéfano's godson and was sent off. That was January and, while June brought him glory with his first and only LaLiga title, the winning match (2-1 victory against Deportivo de La Coruña) was played just a couple of weeks after his aunt Lola died of cancer. Spain mourned her as if it were a state funeral, although immediately after her son, Antonio, Quique's cousin, was found dead of an overdose in Lola's mansion a few days later. Celebrations for a league title were somber after such a family tragedy.
Once his playing career ended, Quique almost immediately took advantage of the fact that he had earned his coaching badges, at just 25 years old – that's the kind of obsessive, detailed, organized guy we're dealing with here. “My family works hard, my family perseveres” is a mantra he constantly repeats in interviews.
I work in Factory (the Factory), the nickname for Real Madrid's prolific youth system, which trains boys like Rubén De La Red, who would win Euro 2008 with Spain. If, in fact, you already know Quique Sánchez Flores well, it is most likely from his time at Getafe (“I accepted the job the first time because no one else wanted it and I was the last brave man standing,” he told Coaches ). Voice on his appointment in 2004), or Valencia. Or, perhaps, Atlético, where he won the 2010 Europa League, beating Fulham in the final.
Although it has been almost 20 years since he won as an opposing coach at the Bernabéu, he is defeated. The whites with enough regularity, like Getafe, Espanyol and Valencia, to be treated with due respect by current Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti.
In fact, the Italian was the last Madrid coach to lose to Sánchez-Flores (January 2022), after which Quique tried to silence the praise he received by saying: “Flattery is very debilitating; many teachers in me taught me this life, especially Di Stéfano who told me that if you inflate your chest you end up sinking. Flattery makes me suffer, I sweat, I blush and the idea that my players think I'm talking. appear in the media after a great victory because “I want to be the 'protagonist' it just embarrasses me.”
Sunday's coronation and cascading recognition will be for Crown Prince Ramos, not Quique Sánchez Flores. And that's how he will want it to be.
Mind you, given Sevilla's perilous position in LaLiga, they would probably welcome a feeling of intense embarrassment at having to deal with Monday morning's praise, which would no doubt follow a surprising away win against the odds.
But, win, lose or draw on Sunday, Di Stéfano's godson remains one of those who helped raise Real Madrid's legendary status and a part of the rich, colorful tapestry of Spanish society.
