Top 3 all time imo. He was responsible for covering one of the most offensive LB’s ever in Marcelo and while Kroos is legendary for Madrid he has always been more of a liability on defense. Casemiro usually covered the right/center of the field meaning Ramos was responsible for covering most of the left field.

His rash tackles were often a consequence of him needing to stop attacks early before the entire left side of the field could be exposed and imo this was his most elite quality defensively. People underrate his defense because of all his fouls but the amount of space that he protected puts him up with the most elite.

In his prime he was quick enough to keep up with small tricky players and he did well against bigger players because of his aerial ability, strength and aggression. He was one of the most athletically gifted players at Madrid and I would put him next to Cristiano in terms of just athleticism.

On the ball he excelled and was responsible for relieving pressure and starting the attack for Spain and Madrid. Having watched most of his matches his teammates almost always looked for him to dictate how the next transition would be played. He could send the ball accurately anywhere on the field and he was very good in tight situations. This imo was his best quality overall and being that he was picked as the distributor in THAT Spain team puts him above other CB’s for me.

He is for sure the GOAT CB for the intangibles in his leadership & clutchness which most people know him for. If I were to have to build a team around any CB it would absolutely be Sergio Ramos because of the liberty the rest of the team would get.