Sergio Ramos may have moved to Liga MX side Monterrey, but the notorious former Real Madrid and Spain defender is still getting involved in all sorts of headline-grabbing antics.
The 39-year-old picked up red card No. 30 of his club career last month in only his fourth match in Mexico, and last weekend he was involved in a bizarre bout of mind games around his other great area of expertise: penalty kicks.
Early in the second half of Saturday’s clash at Tigres, Monterrey were awarded a penalty, and with it a golden chance for their spot-kick expert to score the opening goal of the game. Ramos — who had scored each of his last 21 penalties at club level — stepped up, placed the ball on the spot and readied himself to shoot, only to be met by the sight of Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzmán attempting some utterly baffling diversionary tactics.
As Ramos carefully mapped out his run-up and visualized his shot from 12 yards, Guzmán stood on the goal line with his back to his opponent with his arms splayed out and simply refused to turn around. Cue more than a minute of confusion as Ramos flashed quizzical looks at the match officials.
Despite having made over 1,000 career appearances and winning just about all there is to win in professional football, Ramos had obviously never had to contend with Guzmán’s particular brand of pre-penalty shenanigans before and had no idea what the correct protocol might be. After what felt like an eternity of forcing Ramos to stare bewilderedly at his shirt number, the Tigres keeper then changed things up and began prancing up and down his line, waving his arms in a further attempt to distract the Monterrey captain.
Ramos then decided to get involved in the pantomime himself and motioned to Guzmán that he was going to attempt a Panenka-style penalty, something at which he has proved adept over the years. Several more agonizing moments passed before Guzmán then turned his back once again in a final attempt to disrupt Ramos’ preparations.
Unfortunately for Guzmán, his decision to delay the taking of the penalty for over 90 seconds proved to have little effect on Ramos, who calmly swept the ball into the bottom corner before charging off in celebration.
For all of his failed chicanery, Guzmán still managed to have the last laugh. Monterrey held their slim lead until stoppage time, at which point Tigres hit back with two late goals from Sebastián Córdova and Nicolás Ibáñez to pilfer a dramatic 2-1 victory.
Just to add to the drama, there were three players sent off in the second half at the Estadio Universitario. By some miracle, given his track record, Ramos was not one of them.
With just two rounds of games left in the Clausura championship, Monterrey are ninth with 22 points while Tigres are fourth with 29, four points behind leaders Toluca.
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