The return of Sergio Ramos to Sevilla, already made a reality with the presentation of the footballer in front of 22,000 attendees this Wednesday, raises the level of experience of the squad that José Luis Mendilibar will have under his command throughout this season. There is no doubt that it will also do so with the average age of the team, but perhaps we should not forget that one thing goes with the other and that at certain moments, such as in competitions that require a higher level, this is a factor that enlarges the aura of a soccer team. And Sevilla needs it. In his journey through the Champions League – and it has been seen in the last two editions – he needs it like eating.
Sergio Ramos has boosted the team’s experience in the highest official competition, which right now is at a level that few teams can reach. In Spain, only the big three have more accumulated Champions League games among their players. Adding the experience of Sergio Ramos, Rakitic, Fernando y Jesus Navas, Mendilibar can produce an eleven that exceeds 400 games in the tournament of tournaments at the club level. Between the four of them they have heard 366 times the anthem inspired by a Händel composition that so intoxicates football lovers.
Sergio Ramos: 137
Sergio Ramos. The camero is an institution in the Champions League. He has played 129 duels with Real Madrid and 8 with PSG. He has won four titles and scored 15 goals, several of them in finals, also giving 9 assists.
Rakitic: 91
The Swiss-Croatian midfielder won an award in 2015, the last of Barça’s five European Cups, also scoring in the final. He has 60 culé duels, 12 with Schalke and 19 with Sevilla.
The former Madrid player, who is also the player in the history of the Spanish team with the most official matches played, arrives at Sevilla with 137 Champions matches, which are added to Rakitic’s 91, Fernando’s 71 and Jesús Navas’ 67. No less than 34,669 minutes between the four, a true outrage that was unthinkable a few years ago for a club like Sevilla and a sign of its enormous growth.
Sergio, animal Champions
Hero of the Décima that Real Madrid fans have been waiting for so long, he was captain in the three consecutive Orejonas that the white team won, but in 2014 his name can be said to have been engraved on the silver of that European Cup along with the letters of Real Madrid. He put out the Munich fire with two headers in the semifinals and against Atlético in the final he unleashed madness in the 93rd minute. La Undécima rose in Milan as captain of Real Madrid, also against Simeone’s team and also scoring and not missing his shot in the penalty shootout. In 2017 he was the savior of Naples, with two goals to come back in the round of 16 and reach the final in Cardiff.
Sergio Ramos has played 137 games in the top European club competition, almost all of them with Real Madrid, since only 8, in this last campaign, were with PSG. 15 goals, 9 assists and the impressive figure of 18,118 minutes. A true Champions League animal, with four titles under his belt.
Rakitic, title in 2015
Ivan Rakitic is the second Sevilla player with the most experience in the all-star tournament. If he reaches one hundred matches this year it will be excellent news for those from Nervion, as he has 91 appearances (6,255 minutes) divided between the 60 he signed with Barcelona, the 19 he has currently been with Sevilla and 12 with Schalke 04. In them he has scored 10 goals and distributed 13 assists. He won a title in 2015 by opening the score in the final against Juventus (3-1) in the last of the five European Cups that the Barça team has in its showcases.
Fernando, the bolt
Before Rakitic’s arrival, the Brazilian was the most experienced player. He landed in Nervión with 57 Champions League games under his belt, today he has 71. He has played 34 with Porto, 19 with Manchester City, 4 with Galatasaray and 14 with Sevilla. A total of 5,587 golden minutes for the Sevilla team.
Fernando has not won a Champions League, but he has won three Europa Leagues, one with Porto (2011) and two with Sevilla (2020 and 2023). The one from Goias should have less presence this campaign with the arrival of Soumaré, but only in theory. If you respect his injuries, he is a man who will always be there because he has a tremendous job. A tactically gifted man who, like very few in the world of football, manages the correct coordinates of a match in his position: space-time relationship and the most beneficial location for his team at every moment of the game.
Jesus, the tireless
It illustrates the illusion of a child whose feline eyes continue to shine with a ball in his hands to throw at his feet. Jesús Navas completes the circle having heard the Champions League anthem 67 times. 4,709 minutes in total, 2 goals (both with Sevilla before his departure to England, both to Stuttgart) and 8 assists.
Fernando: 71
When he arrived at Sánchez-Pizjuán he had already made 57 appearances in the Champions League, most of them with Porto, 34, to which he added to his statistics 19 with Manchester City, 4 with Galatasaray and 14 with Sevilla.
Jesus Navas: 67
The current first captain of Sevilla has played ten editions of the Champions League, with 37 games for Sevilla in two different stages and 30 for Manchester City. It is the title that the world champion is missing.
It is the title that is missing from the Niño, who has a World Cup among the 15 titles he has in his home showcase. He has played in the European Cup for ten seasons, six for Sevilla and four for Guardiola’s Manchester City. He reached the semi-finals in 2017, curiously, his dream of playing in a Champions League final at the Santiago Bernabéu was extinguished in a return match on May 4 in which three current Sevilla players, Fernando, Sergio Ramos and the palace A night that the Brazilian will not remember pleasantly, since Manuel Pellegrini’s Madrid won by the minimum with his own goal.
Jesús Navas has made 30 Champions League games for City and 37 for Sevilla, spread over two seasons. Before his departure to England he fully experienced the stellar moments of Juande Ramos’ Sevilla. He played 8 games – that is, all of them – in each campaign (07-08 and 08-09) of that test bench, already with Manolo Jiménez, who stopped Fenerbahçe and CSKA Moscow in the round of 16. And then he was in Sampaoli’s eight matches (16-17), thirteen in the last phase between Lopetegui and the Argentine’s return (20-21, 21-22 and 22-23).
Between the four of them, a total of 366 meetings, which are joined by those contributed by others. Óliver Torres is not far behind, as he has no less than 45 Champions League matches on his record (11 with Atlético, 23 with Porto and 11 with Sevilla). Lamela follows with 28, Ocampos with 21, En-Nesyri with 19 (and 8 goals), Acuña (18), Suso and Sow (14), Mariano (12)…
2023-09-08 04:51:24
#Sergio #Ramos #Rakitic #Fernando #Jesús #Navas #Champions #League #games
