Sergio Ramos: The reaction in Spain to the Real Madrid defender being omitted from the Euro 2020 squad

ByEurosport

Updated 24/05/2021 at 15:53 GMT

Sergio Ramos has been omitted from the Spain squad for Euro 2020 and the news has come as a huge surprise in the nation. Our Eurosport Spain colleague Felix Martin explains why Luis Enrique decided not to include the 35-year-old in his squad, whether the Tokyo Olympics has played its part in the decision making process and he predicts how the lack of Real Madrid players will be received.

Enrique leaves Ramos out of Spain Euro 2021 squad

What is the reaction in Spain?

Luis Enrique has dropped a huge bomb with Sergio Ramos' absence from his list. Every media outlet in Spain is immensely surprised by his decision.

Is the decision understandable?

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Enrique has been asked a lot about this. He has said that his decision was down to Ramos' poor fitness due to injuries that he has suffered during the season. Enrique has said that he spoke with Ramos yesterday and maintained a very polite conversation with him explaining him why he was not going to be in his list.

To me, this seems like a pact between Ramos and Enrique for the defender to fully recover from his injury. Ramos has said many times that he wants to be at the Olympics.

His fitness was probably not good enough to be in the Euros and then the Olympics. So he has probably done this to be able to be ready for Tokyo.

Is this a result of Man City's Aymeric Laporte switching from France?

Not quite. There are other defenders in the team that could be out of the list to benefit Ramos, such as Diego Llorente or César Azpilicueta.

I guess that this is due to Ramos' injuries and his will to fully recover and be in Tokyo.

Will there be controversy that there are no Real Madrid players?

Absolutely. This is the first time in history that there are no Real Madrid players at a Euros. We all understand why Dani Carvajal is not on the list, because of his injuries. But Ramos and Nacho's absences have been absolute surprises.

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Why has Enrique used only 24 of his 26 allocation?

Enrique has said that he wanted to initially give a definitive 24 player list with which he can work from the beginning for them to be focused on the Euros.