With Sergio Ramos coming to an unprecedented end of his 16-year Real Madrid career, the club and the fans bid him a tearful goodbye. Meanwhile, his captaincy will be handed over to Marcelo. The Brazilian is another remarkable club legend and was second in command through the years.
This means that Marcelo is set to become the club’s first foreign captain since 1904. Every club captain at Real Madrid before him has been a Spaniard, be it Ramos or Casillas. To find the previous foreign captain, the records date to 117 years back, when Guatemala’s Federico Revuelto was the captain.
The armband is a great honour at Real Madrid and is awarded to the player who has spent the greatest number of seasons in the first team. This directly means that the Brazilian, who has been a loyal servant at the Santiago Bernabeu for 15 years, will be the next rightful captain for Los Blancos.
This particular custom at the club has faced an understandable degree of criticism in the past. A significant example of this was Jose Mourinho, who was hesitant to grant Iker Casillas the captaincy. The Portuguese manager felt that an outfield player should serve the purpose better. However, it didn’t change the club’s idea behind this tradition.
Given the factor that Marcelo is expected to spend a considerable number of minutes on the bench next season, the armband will be donned mostly by Karim Benzema. The Frenchman has surpassed Marcelo in terms of years spent at the club and has emerged as arguably the team’s most important player.
Sergio Ramos has led the Spanish giants to astounding success since taking over as captain from Iker Casillas in 2015. Real Madrid won 12 trophies in total under Ramos’ captaincy, which includes the historic three-peat Champions League titles from 2016 to 2018.
