Spanish team for UEFA Euro announced amid controversy over high-profile absences

TEAM manager Luis Enrique has announced his list for the UEFA Euro – due to be played a year overdue as a result of 2020's pandemic-related shutdown – and fans have reacted with everything from outrage to conspiracy theories as to why certain key names are absent from the roll-call.

One of these is Spain captain, Sergio Ramos – born in Sevilla but playing for Real Madrid – although Luis Enrique has been quick to clarify his reasons and silence the cynics.

Ramos – whose high-profile wedding was the talk of the media in June 2019 and whose wife Pilar Rubio has since given birth to their fourth son – had an operation on his knee at the beginning of 2021 and was unable to play in the final leg of the season with Real Madrid after suffering another injury and then testing positive for Covid-19.

“My admiration and recognition for Ramos have always been obvious, but you have to take decisions based upon what we consider best for the national team,” Luis Enrique insists.

“It was both a very easy and a very hard list to create, and when you make decisions it's normal that there will be people who agree with you and people who don't. It's evident that Ramos' absence is because he has not been able to compete, especially since January, in the right conditions.

“It was not an easy decision; on Sunday [yesterday] I told him personally. He's always been on the national team and will be able to carry on doing so in the future – it's a complicated decision but you have to do what's best for the group.

“I recommended to Ramos that he puts himself first – that he should be a bit selfish, even – and focus on making a full recovery so he'll be at his best for the future.”

In theory, this means if Ramos does not suffer any further health setbacks and is able to overcome his current injuries and keep his level of play and fitness up to standard, it seems there is no reason why he would not form part of the team for the FIFA World Cup next year.

But this explanation has not entirely satisfied some fans, who point out that the players currently on teams in Spain represent Valencia CF, Villarreal CF, Atlético de Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, FC Barcelona and Real Sociedad, but that not one single player from Real Madrid has been included. 

As a coach, Luis Enrique spent a lot of his time working for FC Barcelona, which is Real Madrid's biggest rival – although also with a season each for RC Celta de Vigo and for AS Roma – leading to some sceptical Real Madrid fans believing the line-up for the UEFA Euro to be political and biased.

This said, during his years on the pitch, Luis Enrique played for both these top-flight rival teams, as midfielder and striker, notching up satisfying amounts of silverware for each, after starting out with his 'local' team Real Sporting de Gijón.

Spain's 'golden era', as a national team, was over the turn of the first and second decade of this century: It won two UEFA Euros on the trot, in 2008 and 2012, and then the World Cup in the middle, in 2010, this being the first time in its history.

But its period of seemingly being unable to put a foot wrong did not last, with disappointing results and early defeat in the World Cups in Brazil in 2014, Russia in 2018, and the Euro in 2016.

With the 2020 Euro being shelved, along with all other major sporting events worldwide for practically the whole of the year, European football teams are now having to go from near-inactivity to a sudden rush of intense competition with the Euro and the World Cup in consecutive years for the first time.

Who made the cut?

Goalkeepers on the team are Unai Simón (Athletic Club de Bilbao), David de Gea (Manchester United) and Robert Sánchez (Brighton & Hove Albion).

Defenders are José Luis Gayà (Valencia CF), Jordi Alba (FC Barcelona), Pau Torres (Villarreal CF), Aymeric Laporte and Èric García (both Manchester City), Diego Llorente (Leeds United), César Azpilicueta (Chelsea FC), and Marcos Llorente (Atlético de Madrid).

Midfielders are Jorge Resurrección Merodio – known exclusively on- and off-pitch as 'Koke' - (Atlético de Madrid), Fabián Ruiz (SSC Napoli), Sergio Busquets (FC Barcelona), Rodri Hernández (Manchester City), Pedro González López, better known as 'Pedri' (FC Barcelona), and Thiago Alcântara (Liverpool FC).

Strikers are Dani Olmo (RB Leipzig), Mikel Oyarzábal (Real Sociedad), Álvaro Morata (Juventus), Gerard Moreno (Villarreal CF), Ferrán Torres (Manchester City), Adama Traoré (Wolverhampton Wanderers), and Pablo Sarabia (Paris Saint-Germain).