I wanted to play Ramos as a forward - Ancelotti

Real Madrid centre-back Sergio Ramos and his goalscoring antics have been in the headlines recently, and he could have ended up as a forward if former boss Carlo Ancelotti had his way at the Santiago Bernabeu.

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One of football's finest defenders, Ramos has proved his worth up front, coming to Madrid's rescue twice in the past fortnight.

Ramos scored a 90th-minute equaliser to salvage a 1-1 draw at reigning La Liga champions Barcelona, while he struck in stoppage time to give Madrid a 3-2 win over Deportivo La Coruna last week.

And Ancelotti - now in charge of Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich - heaped praise on the Madrid captain.

"He continues to score miraculous goals. He does it because he has quality in front of goal," Ancelotti told AS Diario.

"In fact, he could easily have been a forward. I sometimes joked with him, telling him I was going to pick him at centre-forward.

"That personality and character that he has are really important to teams."

Ancelotti knows all too well about Ramos and his late goals for Madrid.

Ramos was the hero in Lisbon in 2014, scoring a 93rd-minute equaliser as Madrid eventually trumped city rivals Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra time in the Champions League final.

"I think that final was my best moment at Real Madrid," Ancelotti said.

"We won the most important trophy that we'd set ourselves as an objective.

"We'd done really well until December, then we had problems with injured players, but fortunately we were able to lift the Champions League."