Three takeaways from Real Madrid’s 4-1 win vs. Girona
The goalscoring exploits of Sergio Ramos
One of the most iconic images of the Ronaldo era at Real Madrid (can’t believe I just said that in the past tense) was the Portuguese forward standing over a free kick or penalty.
Though his free kicks left a lot to be desired, he managed to convert just 20 of the estimated 301 free kicks he took for Real Madrid. However, Ronaldo was clinical from the penalty spot, missing just 12 penalties across nine years at the Spanish capital.
In his absence, Gareth Bale seems to have taken up free kick duties while Sergio Ramos has, surprisingly, taken penalty taking duties. I was quite skeptical about Lopetegui’s choice until the Spaniard’s paneka rippled the back of the Girona net.
The confident chip was Ramos’s 75th goal for Madrid, his 56th La Liga goal (he is La Liga’s highest scoring center back of the 21st century) and the 16th league season in which Ramos has gotten his name on the score sheet.
He is now just four off the record for consecutive La Liga campaigns to score in and if his finish in Catalonia is anything to go by, you’d be hard pushed to rule out the possibility of him breaking it.
Though it might feel like he is closer, Ramos is still some ways off of Madrid’s highest scorers with the lowest tally in the top ten held by Emilo Burtragueno with 171 goals. As for highest goalscoring center backs of all time, Ronald Koeman’s record 253 goals also seems out of the Spaniard’s reach (although, at 32, Ramos still has plenty of time to make a good run at both benchmarks).
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However modest Ramos’s tally might appear in Real Madrid’s history and amongst the some of the most prolific center backs of all time, it is nothing to be frowned upon. Few captains, let alone defenders, can claim to have led from the front like Sergio Ramos has, nor can many players claim to have consistently shown up on the big stage like Sergio Ramos has.
With hindsight, it makes perfect sense that Madrid’s captain would step up to Ronaldo’s penalty taking mantle, fewer players in world football possess a fiercer will to win or the reliability to rise to the big occasion like our beloved number four has.