Only Sergio Ramos Backed Julen Lopetegui To Stay As Spain Manager
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Sergio Ramos isn't exactly an unpopular man at Real Madrid but the Champions League winning captain is going to be even more popular with his new boss at the Bernabeu after he was sacked by Spain.
Real Madrid shocked us all on Tuesday when they announced that the man who would take over from three times Champions League winning manager Zinedine Zidane was Spain boss Julen Lopetegui.
The former Porto boss has only had two club jobs, one with the Portuguese side, that lasted just 18 months, and one with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano, which lasted a mere 10 games.
If that news was pretty surprising then the Spanish FA decided to really outdo Real by sacking Lopetegui just over 48 hours before Spain's opening World Cup game against Portugal on Friday evening.
Basically their president decided that the manager announcing he would leave after the competition might destabilise their efforts to win it so he decided to destabilise it even more, that makes sense.
There were initially reports that the Spain team had tried to fight to keep their manager in place however according to Spanish newspaper SPORT only captain Sergio Ramos spoke up in defence of his soon to be club boss.
RFEF president Luis Rubiales arrived at FK Krasnodar's academy, where the team are based for the tournament, on Tuesday night to make his decision over sacking Lopetegui.
Ramos argued that for sporting reasons the 51 year-old Spaniard should stay in the position that he's held for two years, since Spain lost in the Euros in France, but despite his emphatic pleas the president decided to get rid of the manager.
It was all because the Spanish governing body had learned of their manager's appointment as Real boss for next season only five minutes before the official announcement.
The paper reports that Lopetegui's hypocrisy led them to be disappointed with the coach, and thus not speak up in his favour when the decision was being made.
The former Spain under 21 boss told the players to concentrate on the national team and not on their club teams, even with some of them considering their futures and needing to sort out transfers.
Ramos will certainly be the first player to get a hug off the new Real manager when preseason kicks off.
Topics: Sergio Ramos, Russia 2018, World Cup news, World Cup, Julen Lopetegui, Spain, Real Madrid
