• 167 matches, Sergio Ramos record numbers

This Sunday in Gijón football started in the morning, at snack time, in the bars of the city, with Sporting on the screen, playing, and losing, against Huesca. Another year that the city team project is not going. Another year that one of the places where football is most lived walks towards despair. Another year, finally, when the ball is not going to give joys in these corners. Taking a walk along the Wall, which is the same as saying the beach of San Lorenzo, a giant poster of one of the sponsors of the selection recalls the figure honored in the other game of the day, the selection, with much less attention among the people, everything is said, that the morning.

The full one in the cider houses and the restaurants, without tickets at noon, the Festival of Asturias, so ingrained, so sunny, did not translate then into anything apotheosic in El Molinón. Once again, the team failed to fill a medium field . Medium pulling small. Not even the emotionality of the night served as a claim for the fans. Not that it wasn't empty, but it wasn't full. The tribute to Quini and, by extension, and unfortunately, to Luis Enrique , was thus forged with the stadium to, more or less, three quarters of its capacity. The first to arrive were a little stunned when it rang through the public address system, as an animation, "To live like this is to die of love", one of the hymns of Camilo Sesto , who died at dawn on Sunday.

Exceeded the detail, it was a matter of waiting for the tribute to Quini, probably the greatest icon not only of Sporting, but of the city itself. It was something short, discreet, it is not UEFA very much in favor of celebrations, neither happy nor sad, before their matches. So a video of less than a minute, with some of the most recognizable photos of the Warlock, gave way to two former Sporting players, Juan Carlos Ablanedo and Eloy Olalla , giving Pablo , Quini's teenage grandson, a shirt with his name, with the number 9 and signed by all the players of the current selection. It was the way to recognize the figure, a year and a half after his death, of someone who came to play 35 games with the national team. In them he scored eight goals.

A huge photograph

At the time that Spain and the Faroe Islands appeared, a huge photograph was displayed until it occupied a good part of the side facing the grandstand, and a mosaic with the national flag covered the entire South Fund. However, there was still the most exciting moment. «Then, a minute of silence will be kept for the death of the daughter of Luis Enrique Martínez, national coach», was heard through the public address system. After repeating it in English, the stadium, which belonged to Luis Enrique, fell silent. A black crepe and a sad bagpipe froze the room for less than a minute , as he considered the Polish referee that it was more important to comply with television obligations than to maintain the moment.

When the ball rolled, and seeing that in the field the show was not very funny, it was time to repair the brutality of Sergio Ramos's numbers, which already boasts the same number of international matches as Iker Casillas (167) . The next month of October, in the matches against Sweden and Norway, if there is no injury through, he will remain alone at the head of that exclusive classification. The Sevillian, owner of 21 goals - just Daniel Pasarella, with 22, has scored more goals than he being a defender in a national team - has scored in eight of the last nine games and has 14 penalties in a row scoring (counting Real Madrid, of course ). There, with 15 on his back and the captain's armband, he directed his own.

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