Zinedine Zidane Names The Most Important Player In His Real Madrid Squad

With back-to-back Champions Leagues and last season's La Liga title under his belt already as manager of Real Madrid, you could make an argument for pretty much any member of Zinedine Zidane's Los Blancos team being his most important player. Yet the Frenchman has managed to single out the man he believes to be most integral to the club's success.

And no, it isn't Cristiano Ronaldo and his 250+ goals a season.

Zidane was named as 'Best FIFA Men's Coach' at FIFA's 'The Best' awards ceremony in London on Monday night and saw six of his European and Spanish champions named in the best XI of the year.

One of which was Real captain Sergio Ramos, who Zidane believes is his squad's most significant asset.

Ramos has been at the Bernabeu for 12 years now, having arrived in a £35 million deal from Sevilla in 2005 and was briefly teammates with Zidane before the Frenchman retired in 2006.

Sergio Ramos

Ramos

Ramos has led by example since taking the captain's armband at Real, two years ago. Images: PA

In his dozen years in the Spanish capital, Ramos has established himself as one of the modern game's finest defenders, being named in the FIFPro World XI eight times and La Liga's Defender Of The Year four times, winning three Champions Leagues and four La Liga titles in the process, while also flourishing at international level with Spain, winning the 2008 and 2012 European Championships and the 2010 World Cup.

And it is with all these monumental achievements in mind that Zidane has highlighted Ramos' importance to his team, in an interview with MARCA.

"Ramos knows that he is our captain. And in the end, he is the most important player on the team."

The 31-year-old was heavily linked with a £60 million move to Manchester United two summers ago, although the rumours ended up being nothing more than fuel for Ramos to use to land a new contract at the Bernabeu, before being handed the captain's armband after Iker Casillas left to join Porto.

(H/T MARCA)

Topics: Football News, Sergio Ramos, Football, Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid, La Liga

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

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