Mohamed Salah and Sergio Ramos famously clashed in the 2018 Champions League final and while the Spaniard was villainsed for his part in the incident, Trent Alexander-Arnold had a different take on the matter
Trent Alexander-Arnold will become a Real Madrid player on Sunday and his comments about former Los Blancos star Sergio Ramos perhaps say it all about why the defender is making a move to the Spanish capital. Ramos, now 39, has gone down in the pantheon of footballing villains on the red half of Merseyside.
It unfolded as Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool were facing Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final in Kyiv The stage was set for Mohamed Salah to cap off a stunning season by firing the Reds to their sixth European Cup.
However, the Egyptian star’s dream quickly descended into a nightmare after a brutal tussle with the rugged Madrid defender sent Salah thudding to the ground. Liverpool’s talisman was escorted off the pitch in tears just 26 minutes into the game with an injured shoulder – his Champions League dream, and his team’s, in tatters.
Madrid ultimately prevailed 3-1 and the incident was enough to make Ramos an enemy of Anfield loyalists for life – something of a persona non grata on Merseyside. Yet Alexander-Arnold saw the event differently.
He soon after owned up to admiring Ramos’, win-at-all-cost mentality, and it’s these comments that could demonstrate why he was so eager to join Madrid, with the Spanish giants’ winning values perhaps perfectly aligning with the 26-year-old’s own.
Speaking back in September 2018, while the rest of the Liverpool was still reeling over what Ramos snatched from them, the full-back revealed his utmost respect for the Spanish star.
“Everyone has their ways of winning and he has shown over the last 10 years that he’s a winner,” Alexander-Anold told the Guardian.
“So has his team. To win the Champions League three times in a row takes some doing. Ramos has probably been the best centre-back in the world for some time. Even if he was the enemy in May you still have to respect him as a player.”
Despite Klopp recently defending Alexander-Arnold from the jeers he was subjected to by Liverpool fans in light of his impending exit, it seems they don’t share the same opinion on Ramos.
“Is Mr Sergio Ramos really a good guy?” said Klopp on Toni Kroos’ Einfach mal Lupen podcast in October 2024. “He’s not my favourite player. The action was brutal. I could never understand that mentality, I never had players like that and, when I did, I made sure they left.”
Salah, too, could not bring himself to discuss Ramos, and rather focused on what the moment took away from him. “The final of the Champions League, a big dream for yourself, for the city, for the fans and for everyone. We wanted to win the Champions League,” he said, speaking back in 2019.
“And that time, mentally, it was very, very bad. Especially when I got substituted, I went to the dressing room and was just crying because I felt like the Champions League was over.”
When he was asked if he had the chance to speak to Ramos since the match, Salah added: “Oh no. I didn’t speak to him and for me the subject is closed. I’m not talking about him now.”
Alexander-Arnold will now join Real in time to play in the Club World Cup after the Spanish side paid a fee to release him from Liverpool early. The player has already agreed a six-year deal with the 15-time European Cup winners.
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