Alba still one of world's best despite Spain snub, says Ramos

Spain manager Luis Enrique continues to overlook Barcelona left-back Jordi Alba, much to the surprise of Sergio Ramos

Sergio Ramos has described Jordi Alba as one of the world’s best full-backs as he continues to be overlooked by new Spain head coach Luis Enrique.

One surprising element of Enrique’s tenure following his post-World Cup appointment is his treatment of left-back Alba, a player he worked with at Barcelona.

Alba is yet to be called up by the 48-year-old, despite previously being a key member of Spain’s defence.

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The Barcelona defender has been an ever-present for his club this season and is still very much their first choice left-back option.

Despite this, Enrique has opted to look at other options since taking charge of his country, with Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso, Valencia’s Jose Gaya and Wolves’ Jonny Castro all chosen ahead of him for Spain’s latest international fixtures.

Captain Ramos believes that, by leaving Alba out, the Spain coach is ignoring one of the world’s best.

“Myself and Jordi Alba have played many years together, he is one of the best in the world, as shown by his performances and statistics,” he said.

“But then the coach is the one doing the line-up. For our [the players’] part, he will always be well received.”

Ramos is expected to start in his hometown of Seville on Monday when Spain host England in the Nations League.

Enrique’s side have won their opening two fixtures of the newly founded tournament and know that a win against England would see them qualify for next June’s Nations League finals as group winners.

Their opening fixture of the tournament saw them beat Monday’s opponents 2-1 at Wembley last month, with goals from Saul Niguez and Rodrigo Moreno ensuring them victory after going behind early on.

They followed that up with an excellent 6-0 victory over World Cup finalists Croatia before beating Wales 4-1 in their most recent friendly on Thursday.