Champions League final 2017: Stage set for Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid's signing of the century

It didn’t felt like it at the time, but when Real Madrid brought Sergio Ramos in 2005 for just under £19 million it was quite possibly their best buy of the century.

Other signings from that era such as Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and David Beckham all cost more. Chelsea spent more the same summer on Shaun Wright-Phillips. But Ramos, still only 19, and the first Spaniard signed by president Florentino Perez, has arguably been the club’s most significant 21st century acquisition – more so than even Cristiano Ronaldo.

On Saturday, he will lead Real Madrid into their second Champions League final in two years; their third in four years. He got the crucial injury-time equalizer against Atletico Madrid in 2014 that enabled Real Madrid to win their tenth European Cup. He scored again in last year’s final and then lifted the trophy. But more than the iconic moments, he brings something that so many clubs lack. He is the Spanish heart and soul of the team.

After Saturday night’s final if Real Madrid are victorious he will swish a makeshift Torero’s cape thrown him by supporters – he thinks it’s unlikely to take one pre-prepared himself. He’ll be the Spaniard winning the biggest club competition in football for Spain’s biggest team.

Post John Terry and Steven Gerrard, it’s hard to see who the Ramos figure is at any of the top six clubs in the Premier League. Ramos is Real’s captain in every sense.

Of course the symbolism would all count for nothing if he were not also one of the world’s best defenders. For all the run-ins with referees and the occasionally rush of blood to the head no one anticipates more effectively, few lead and organize as well, and not many play the ball out from the back as intelligently. Anyone who has seen him ping volleys across the pitch in the warm-up, smashing the ball forty-yards without letting it bounce know he’s a good enough footballer to have made it in any position on the pitch.

He would have made a great box-to-box midfielder in England. In most Spanish sides you could play him at centre-forward and he would score 20 goals a season. If he scores in Cardiff he will be the first to have scored in three finals in the Champions League era.

And he said in one interview this week that he wasn’t bothered about winning the Ballon d’Or because if he cared about individual honours he would have dedicated himself to tennis instead – you just know if he had, he would be capable of giving Rafa Nadal a game, no problem.

Ramos is the Boy’s Own hero for Real Madrid supporters. But it’s getting more and more difficult to score those dramatic late headers because teams are now so prepared.

"I now have three players worried about me. One marks me, one marks the space, and one comes to block my path but Atletico Madrid did that recently and Pepe scored so if it frees someone else to score then it’s fine," he said this week.

He’s happy for that. He’s one player for whom ‘the main thing is that the team wins’ is not an empty platitude. He spent his three days off earlier this week on the island of Ibiza with best friends from the team, winger Lucas Vazquez and keeper Keylor Navas. His relationship with the all the players is good enough for him to hold together team spirit in a dressing room that has been fractious over the years.

Madrid almost lost him in 2015 when he flirted with Manchester United but although he would have been a success at Old Trafford he would no longer have been the club talisman he is at Madrid.

He is Sevillian to the core, right down the religious cards depicting various saints given to him for luck by his mother and grandmother that he will put up in a home-made mini-altar in his hotel room before the final. He also won’t allow the biggest game of the calendar to rob him off of his afternoon nap, although he told Spanish radio Onda Cero this week: "I will sleep okay the night before but when I have my siesta I will really struggle to fall asleep."

Twelve years have passed since he signed as a teenager. He is 31 years old now and he knows his career will not last forever. Asked if he could emulate Francesco Totti, who retired from Roma at the weekend, he admitted that it would be tough to still be playing at 40 at Real Madrid.

"If when there are just two years left on my contract and I’m waking up in the morning and not feeling as good as I’m now, it won’t matter that I have two years left - I will know when it’s time to go, grateful for all that I have achieved," he says.

He might not last as long as Totti but regardless of when he goes he will deserve a similarly emotional send-off. And if he goes with at least three European Cups won, it will be no more than he deserves.