Sergio Ramos is one of the most decorated and combative defenders football has known, a centre-back who could also operate at right-back and who allied ferocious commitment to genuine technical quality. He rose at Sevilla before a long, trophy-laden career at Real Madrid, where he captained the club through an era of unprecedented Champions League success.
His header deep into stoppage time of the 2014 final rescued Madrid and set them on the path to repeated European triumphs. A leader and a scorer of vital goals, he was as likely to convert a penalty or a set-piece as to concede a red card in the heat of battle.
With Spain he won the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship in 2008 and 2012, becoming one of the most-capped internationals in the game’s history before later spells at Paris Saint-Germain and beyond.