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What’s the story?
It all started back in Kiev on May 26th when Liverpool faced off against Real Madrid in the Champions League final. Sergio Ramos, known for dishing out hard tackles, injured Mohamed Salah’s shoulder during a challenge which forced the Egyptian wide-man to be substituted early in the first half. The Reds would go on to lose the final 3-1.
Since then Dejan Lovren, a good friend of Salah, has had it out for Ramos.
It is safe to say the Liverpool defender is not a big admirer of the Spaniard. He recently said that Ramos was made to look better than he was by his Real Madrid teammate Raphael Varane, Lovren believes the Frenchman is better than Ramos.
He is clearly not afraid to voice his opinion: "I took Liverpool to the final of the Champions League and now with my national team we are in the final. People should recognize that I am also one of the best defenders in the world and not just talk nonsense," he said.
“If you look, Ramos has many more mistakes than me. But he plays for Real Madrid, when you do a mistake you win 5-1 or 5-2, nobody cares," Lovren added.
At first, the Spanish Captain refused to comment on what was said about him but eventually, he responded to Lovren:
I've said it many times. I don't know if these things are said out of frustration or for other reasons,
I didn't want to speak because everything is magnified. I see the play well, he [Salah] grabs my arm first and I fell to the other side, the injury happened to the other arm and they said that I gave him a judo hold.
After the goalkeeper [Karius] said that I dazed him with a clash. I am only missing Firmino saying that he got a cold because a drop of my sweat landed on him.
A strong reply from the 32-year-old Madrista.
Recently, fuel was added to the fire when Croatia took on Spain in the UEFA Nations League. Ramos converted a penalty for the Spaniards to make it 2-2 but the Croats clinched the game after a late winner.
After the victory, the Croatians celebrated in the dressing room and Lovren took to Instagram live to aim another dig at Ramos saying “Go ahead and talk now buddy! They are a bunch of p******", he is speaking in Croatian so exactly what he says is unclear. He also looks at the camera and says "haha! 3-2!" after making an elbowing motion.
At the post-match conference, Lovren had more to say: "They are, I don't know how to call it, rude on the field. They fall down without reason.”
The next day Lovren also uploaded a picture on Instagram of him winning a header against Ramos with the caption, “Dobro jutro Hrvatska,” which translates to “Good Morning Croatia”.
Later that day one follower commented on the picture asking if that was “for Salah”. He responded to the fan with the heart emoji, almost suggesting that he did indeed do it for his Liverpool teammate.
Not long-ago ex England international and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand had his say on the matter. He said that Lovren has no right to speak badly about a player that has won virtually everything available in European and international football.
Taking to Instagram, he said: "Your man out here starting needs within the center back union. This ain't even meant to be an argument.”
"Ramos has too many trophies for Lovren to be coming like this...with all due respect."
Ferdinand makes a fair point, after all, Sergio Ramos is one of the greatest defenders the game has ever seen. The man has won everything; 4 League titles and 4 UCL’s with Los Blancos, the World Cup and 2 Euros with Spain. He is also the all-time highest scoring defender in La Liga history and has been in the ‘World XI’ 9 times.
Lovren’s achievements are pale in comparison. His runners-up medals from the UCL and World Cup final this year are arguably the best accomplishments of his career so far, the 29-year-old also made the ‘World XI’ fourth team once.
What Now?
More recently Ramos had been implicated in an alleged doping scandal which claims he breached the regulations after the 2017 Champions League final against Juventus. It will be interesting to see if Lovren takes a shot at his Spanish counterpart again.
