SERGIO Ramos has announced his retirement from international football after speaking with Spain’s new boss Luis de la Fuentes.
The Paris Saint-Germain defender confirmed his decision to quit the national team today, two months after missing Spain’s Qatar 2022 World Cup campaign.
The 36-year-old centre-back is Spain’s most-capped player, and played key roles as they won World Cup and European Championships titles.
“The time has come, the time to say goodbye to the national team, our beloved and exciting Red,” Ramos wrote on his social media channels.
“This morning I received the call from the current coach who told me that he doesn’t count and that he won’t count on me, regardless of the level I can show or how I continue my sporting career.”
The former Real Madrid captain made his Spain debut in 2005 as a teenager and went on to make a record 180 appearances for his country.
Ramos was an important member of the Spain squads that won the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championships in 2008 and 2012, but was omitted from the Euro 2020 and Qatar 2022 World Cup teams.
Head coach Luis Enrique left the role after their disappointing World Cup outing in Qatar, where they lost out in the round of 16 to Morocco, and Luis de la Fuente took over.
“With great regret, it is the end of a journey that I hoped would be longer and that would end with a better taste in the mouth, on the height of all the successes we have achieved with our Red,” Ramos added.
“Humbly, I think that that career deserved to end because of a personal decision or because my performance was not up to what our national team deserves, but not because of age or other reasons that, without having heard them, I have felt.
“Because being young or less young is not a virtue or a defect, it is only a temporary trait that is not necessarily related to performance or ability. I look with admiration and envy at Modric, Messi, Pepe… the essence, tradition, values, meritocracy and justice in football.”
