The captain of the Spanish national football team, Sergio Ramos,
was the only one with the record for the most international matches
at the European level, with his participation in the match against Switzerland,
on Saturday, in the fifth and penultimate round of the third group of
the European Nations League football competition.
Real Madrid defender equaled the European record registered
in the name of Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (176 international matches),
after his participation, Wednesday, in a friendly match for his national
team against the Netherlands (1-1).
Ramos, 34, is 8 games away from the world record equalization
registered in the name of retired Egyptian “General” Ahmed Hassan,
who has 184 international matches.
Ramos played his first international matches in 2005 when he was
eighteen years old against China under the supervision of the late
coach Luis Aragones, and then contributed greatly to his country’s team
winning the European Cup in 2008 and 2012 and the 2010 World Cup
in South Africa, along with symbols such as Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
or Iker Casillas, who gave him the captaincy in 2016.
Since that time, he has become a key member of the “La Roja” squad,
despite the urgent changes in the coaching staff, from Vicente del Bosque
to Luis Enrique, passing through John Lopetegui and Robert Moreno.
Before his equalizer for Buffon, Wednesday, the decisive header
had broken the Spanish record last year by playing Norway in the European
Cup 2020 qualifiers, where he played his 168 matches, surpassing
the record of his former colleague in Real Casillas goalkeeper.
Ramos puts his eyes on the number of Hassan, who defended the colors
of the “Pharaohs” between 1995 and 2012, but Ramos is still in sixth
place behind Hassan, Omani Ahmed Kanu (35 years), the current activist
(179 matches), and Saudi goalkeeper Muhammad Al-Deay` and
Kuwaiti Badr Al-Mutawa (35 years), activist (178), and former
Mexican defender Claudio Soares (177).
