After PSG’s Achraf Hakimi scored Morocco’s winning penalty against Spain, he celebrated with a ‘Sergio Ramos’ waddle. Former Spain and Madrid captain Sergio Ramos was left out of the Spain squad by Luis Enrique, and his exclusion will have even more scrutiny on it now that Spain has bowed out of the World Cup in the round of 16.
As Sergio Busquets stepped up to take his penalty, his wry smile had me believing Spain might come back from the brink and win. I was wrong. He missed, Hakimi scored, and Spain were – yet again – out of the World Cup without reaching the quarters.
WATCH: Hakimi celebrates winning goal against Spain with ‘Ramos style’ waddle
Speaking of being wrong… Luis Enrique’s decision to leave Sergio Ramos out of the squad is now coming under scrutiny, not only because Spain lost, but also because Hakimi, who is teammates with Sergio Ramos at PSG, celebrated his Sergio Ramos style panenka with a Sergio Ramos style “waddle” (as pointed out by Madrid fan account @WolfRMFC).
Ice cold indeed.
This isn’t the first time Hakimi has paid tribute to Ramos, with the right back taking to Twitter in November to call Sergio Ramos, who was left out of Spain’s World Cup squad by Luis Enrique, the “Best defend in the world.”
Sergio Ramos Best defend in the world
— Achraf Hakimi (@AchrafHakimi) November 11, 2022
The whole saga has many Madridistas claiming Luis Enrique, a former Barcelona coach, elected not to choose Ramos because of his long and storied career with Los Blancos. Enrique obviously maintains that he picked the players that were best for his system, and those that were most in form (though Ramos has improved this year, when he first went to PSG there was a dip in form).
Those over at The Spanish Football Podcast reckon group dynamics might have had something to do with Enrique’s decision to leave Ramos out. However after Spain’s recent loss to Japan they, too, were wondering if maybe Enrique could have brought Ramos along anyway.
It’s also worth mentioning Spain lost to Russia in 2018, in somewhat similar circumstances, with Sergio Ramos.
It’s all a bit late to talk about now though. As it turns out, it’s not just Barcelona who struggle to emulate Barcelona from 2009, but also Spain. Weird.
Ramos has stayed out of the controversy, taking to Instagram to write: “Today more than ever, proud of our flag, proud of our country and proud of our players. Spain doesn’t lose, Spain learns. Spain falls, stumbles, but gets up and keeps going. We will come back and we will come back stronger. Come on Spain.”
Comments on this post included: “We miss the GRAN CAPITÁN!!!” and “you are our eternal captain.”
Others said his absence has been noticed and that in World Cups it is necessary to have a mix of youth and experience, and that in this Mundial the absence of that mix for Spain really showed.
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