Sergio Ramos has been at Real Madrid for a long, long time. He has seen enough of the crowd at the Bernabeu to know what’s good from bad, and his latest quotes defending Cristiano Ronaldo speak to that. Ronaldo was booed by his own fans on Tuesday despite scoring the opening goal against AS Roma. Sergio Ramos tells Real Madrid fans to be more supportive, but he understands where they are coming from (H/T Bleacher Report).
“I would tell the fans to think a little first. I respect them but when things don't go well they should support their players because we all want the best for Real Madrid.”
“He's a historic player for Real Madrid, he keeps proving that year after year, look at what he's achieved.”
“When the fans at the Bernabeu boo you it is because they want to transmit their demands to you, they want to push us and see the best performance from us.”
What Sergio Ramos tells Real Madrid fans mirrors what head coach Zinedine Zidane said about them.
Zidane recently told his players that they shouldn’t make a big deal of the whistles and jeers they hear from the fans at times, and that the fans whistling and jeering will make them perform better.
Whether or not Ronaldo’s goal was spurred by the vitriol he was hearing from his own fans is debatable, but the class of his finish was not.
Ronaldo also had an assist on the only other goal of the day as well.
Sergio Ramos’ words come in the wake of Ronaldo’s sister’s words defending Ronaldo’s son, Cristiano Jr, from media attention after he was caught on a phone while his father played. In both cases, unfair criticism was defended, and I think that that speaks to the good relationship that Ronaldo has with his teammates. Ramos defended Ronaldo as if they were family, just like his Ronaldo’s sister had defended Ronaldo’s son.
It’s always nice to see teammates stick up for each other, especially at a place like Real Madrid.
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