Raúl González

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Raúl
Personal information
Full name	Raúl González Blanco
Date of birth	June 27, 1977 (1977-06-27) (age 31)
Place of birth	Madrid, Spain
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Second striker
Club information
Current club	Real Madrid
Number	7
Youth clubs
1988–1989 1990–1992 1992–1994	San Cristóbal de Los Ángeles Atlético Madrid Real Madrid
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1994–	Real Madrid	517 (301)
National team2
1996–	Spain	102 0(44)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of December 7, 2008 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of September 9, 2006 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Raúl González Blanco (born June 27, 1977 in Madrid), simply known as Raúl, is a Spanish football striker who plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid. He is a three-time winner of the UEFA Champions League and is the all-time leading scorer in the UEFA Champions League, with 64 goals. Raúl is also the all-time leading scorer in official UEFA competitions with 66 goals.

[edit] Club career

Raúl has spent his entire club career with Real Madrid. He began the 1994-95 season in Madrid's C-team, but, after scoring sixteen goals in seven games, the young prodigy was swiftly fast-tracked to first team status by coach Jorge Valdano. He became the youngest player (seventeen years and four months) ever to play for the senior side, scoring in his second senior game against Atletico Madrid. In all, Raúl registered nine goals in 28 appearances to help Real Madrid win the 1994-95 league championship in his first season. Raúl's emergence also hastened the departure of Spanish legend, Emilio Butragueno, from the club. Raúl was even more impressive in his second season with the first team. He scored 19 goals and there were calls in many quarters for Spain national team coach Javier Clemente to include Raúl in the squad for Euro 96 in England. In the end, Clemente decided that Raúl (still only 18) was too young, and did not give the player his first cap until the following autumn. Raúl won further La Liga titles in 1996-97 (scoring 21 goals), in 2000-01 (25 goals), 2002-03 (16 goals), 2006-07 (36 goals), and 2007-08 (18 goals). He has twice been La Liga's top scorer ('Pichichi'), with tallies of 24 and 25 goals in the 1998-99 and 2000-01 seasons. His present tally of La Liga goals (211) is a record among players currently playing, and is the sixth-highest total of all time. He is commonly rated as one of the greatest strikers in modern time Europe.

Raúl took over the captaincy of Real Madrid when Fernando Hierro departed in 2003, and has since shown himself to be a natural and respected leader. He was described by his former national team coach, Luis Aragones, as a 'blood donor' who gives more than most players to the team.

He became the first player to score fifty Champions League goals when he netted in a 2-1 group stage win over Olympiakos on September 28, 2005^[1], and continues to be the all-time leader in both CL goals (64) and appearances (123).^[2]

Raúl endured a difficult couple of years during Real Madrid's disastrous 'Galactico' era, in which he played in a variety of roles and increasingly moved away from his natural habitat, the penalty area. This had the effect of drastically reducing his seasonal goal tallies, and led to speculation that Raúl was no longer the player he once was. With the arrival of no-nonsense coach, Fabio Capello, however, Raúl was reborn in 2007, and scored some decisive goals in the run-in which led to Madrid winning a surprise La Liga title in 2006-07. Continuing his rich vein of form, Raúl scored eighteen goals in the 2007-08 La Liga season, along with five Champions League goals, and was very unlucky not to be included in the Spanish national team squad for its victorious Euro 2008 campaign.

After a couple of years in which he disappeared from the shortlist, Raúl was once again among the top 50 players shortlisted for the 2007 Ballon D'or. He holds the distinction of having never received a red card throughout his 14 years at the professional level.^[3] On 11 November 2008, Raul scored his 300th goal for Real Madrid with a hat-trick against Real Union, with Real winning the game 4-3 but being eliminated on away goals after drawing 6-6 on aggregate.^[4]

Raul has now scored 304 goals for Real Madrid, and is closing in quickly on Alfredo Di Stefano's all-time record of 307 goals.

[edit] International career

Raúl has scored a national record 44 goals in 102 caps for Spain. He earned his first cap against the Czech Republic in October 1996, and took over the team captaincy following the retirement of Fernando Hierro in 2002. He participated in three World Cups from 1998 to 2006, along with Euro 2000 and Euro 2004, scoring at least one goal in each of the three World Cup competitions.

On March 27, 1999, Raúl scored the 800th goal in national team history during Spain's 9-0 rout of Austria.^[5] He then scored the 900th goal three and a half years later in a Euro 2004 qualifier on September 7, 2002 against Greece, which Spain won 2-0.^[6]

Raúl played his last game against Northern Ireland in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, which Spain lost 3-2. Raúl was not selected for UEFA Euro 2008 either, having been displaced in the team by Fernando Torres and David Villa. He was surprisingly not chosen as one of the back-up strikers. (Dani Guiza was chosen instead). There was a clamour among many fans, and in the media, especially marca, for Raúl to be selected, and it began to interfere with the work of the national team coach, Luis Aragones. Raúl met with Aragones two months before Euro 2008 and then issued a joint statement declaring that neither had a personal problem with the other, and that Raúl's absence from the national team was solely a footballing matter. This press conference drew a line under the continuing controversy and allowed the national team to prepare in peace for their successful assault on the Euro 2008 crown.

[edit] Personal life

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For many years, Raúl's goal celebration has consisted of kissing his wedding ring as an acknowledgment to his wife, Spanish model Mamen Sanz. For a period of eighteen months, coinciding with his absence from the Spanish national team, Raúl used to also celebrate his goals by pointing both thumbs at the name on the back of his shirt. This was interpreted by many to be a veiled criticism of national team coach, Luis Aragones. Raúl has four sons: Jorge, named after the coach who gave him his Real Madrid debut,Jorge Valdano; Hugo, named after Raúl's childhood hero Hugo Sánchez; and twins Héctor and Mateo, named after German footballer Lothar Matthäus. He enjoys reading, especially the books of Arturo Pérez Reverte, and listening to Spanish music, as well as hunting and watching bullfighting.

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Club goals

Last update: 5 january 2009.

[edit] International goals

Raúl González Blanco: International goals^[7]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	1996-12-14	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain	Yugoslavia	2-0	2-0	1998 World Cup qualificaion
2	1998-03-25	Estadio Balaídos, Vigo, Spain	Sweden	3-0	4-0	Friendly
3	1998-06-13	Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes, France	Nigeria	2-1	2-3	1998 FIFA World Cup
4	1998-09-05	Tsirion Stadium, Limassol, Cyprus	Cyprus	2-1	3-2	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
5	1998-11-18	Stadio Arechi, Salerno, Italy	Italy	2-2	2-2	Friendly
6	1999-03-27	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain	Austria	1-0	9-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
7	1999-03-27	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain	Austria	2-0	9-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
8	1999-03-27	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain	Austria	5-0	9-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
9	1999-03-27	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain	Austria	8-0	9-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
10	1999-03-31	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	0-2	0-6	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
11	1999-03-31	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	0-4	0-6	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
12	1999-03-31	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	0-5	0-6	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
13	1999-06-05	Estadio El Madrigal, Villarreal, Spain	San Marino	5-0	9-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
14	1999-09-04	Ernst Happel Stadion, Wien, Austria	Austria	0-1	1-3	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
15	1999-10-10	Estadio Carlos Belmonte, Albacete, Spain	Israel	3-0	3-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
16	2000-01-26	Estadio Cartagonova, Cartagena, Spain	Poland	1-0	3-0	Friendly match
17	2000-06-18	Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Slovenia	1-0	2-1	UEFA Euro 2000
18	2000-08-16	Niedersachsenstadion, Hannover, Germany	Germany	4-1	4-1	Friendly match
19	2001-03-24	Estadio José Rico Pérez, Alicante, Spain	Liechtenstein	4-1	5-0	2002 World Cup Qualifier
20	2001-06-02	Estadio Carlos Tartiere, Oviedo, Spain	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3-1	4-1	2002 World Cup Qualifier
21	2001-06-06	Ramat Gan Stadium, Tel-Aviv, Israel	Israel	1-1	1-1	2002 World Cup Qualifier
22	2001-09-05	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	0-1	0-2	2002 World Cup Qualifier
23	2001-11-14	Estadio Nuevo Colombino, Huelva, Spain	Mexico	1-0	1-0	Friendly match
24	2002-04-17	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	0-1	0-5	Friendly match
25	2002-04-17	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	0-3	0-5	Friendly match
26	2002-06-02	Gwangju Stadium, Gwangju, South Korean	Slovenia	1-0	3-1	2002 FIFA World Cup
27	2002-06-12	Daejeon Stadium, Daejeon, South Korean	South Africa	1-0	3-2	2002 FIFA World Cup
28	2002-06-12	Daejeon Stadium, Daejeon, South Korean	South Africa	3-2	3-2	2002 FIFA World Cup
29	2002-09-07	Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, Athens, Greece	Greece	0-1	0-2	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
30	2003-02-12	ONO Estadi, Palma de Mallorca, Spain	Germany	1-0	3-1	Friendly match
31	2003-02-12	ONO Estadi, Palma de Mallorca, Spain	Germany	2-1	3-1	Friendly match
32	2003-03-29	Olympic Stadium, Kyiv, Ukraine	Ukraine	1-1	2-2	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
33	2003-09-10	Estadio Martinez Valero, Elche, Spain	Ukraine	1-0	2-1	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
34	2003-09-10	Estadio Martinez Valero, Elche, Spain	Ukraine	2-0	2-1	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
35	2003-10-11	Hanrapetakan Stadium, Yerevan, Armenia	Armenia	0-2	0-4	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
36	2003-11-15	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain	Norway	1-1	2-1	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying - Play-offs
37	2003-11-19	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	Norway	0-1	0-3	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying - Play-offs
38	2004-03-31	El Molinón, Gijón, Spain	Denmark	2-0	2-0	Friendly match
39	2004-09-03	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain	Scotland	1-1	1-1	Friendly match
40	2004-10-09	Estadio El Sardinero, Santander, Spain	Belgium	2-0	2-0	2006 World Cup Qualifier
41	2005-02-09	Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, Almería, Spain	San Marino	3-0	5-0	2006 World Cup Qualifier
42	2005-09-07	Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, Spain	Serbia and Montenegro	1-0	1-1	2006 World Cup Qualifier
43	2006-06-03	Estadio Martinez Valero, Elche, Spain	Egypt	1-0	2-0	Friendly match
44	2006-06-19	Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart, Germany	Tunisia	1-1	3-1	2006 FIFA World Cup

[edit] Honors and awards

[edit] Real Madrid

• La Liga: 1994-95, 1996-97, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07, 2007–08
• Spanish Super Cup: 1997, 2001, 2003, 2008
• UEFA Champions League: 1997–98, 1999–00, 2001–02
• UEFA Super Cup: 2002
• Intercontinental Cup: 1998, 2002

[edit] Individual

• Premio Don Balón (Young Player in La Liga): 1994-95
• IFFHS World Goalgetter: 1999
• ESM Team of the Year: 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-00
• Pichichi Trophy: 1999, 2001
• UEFA Champions League Top Scorer: 1999-00, 2000-01
• FIFA World Player of the Year Bronze Award: 2001
• European Footballer of the Year Silver Award: 2001
• UEFA Club Football Awards, Best Forward: 2000, 2001, 2002
• Best Spanish player in La Liga: 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02
• FIFA 100
• Trofeo Alfredo Di Stéfano: 2008^[8][9]

[edit] Orders

• Royal Order Gold Medal for Sports Merit: 2006^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Profile, awards and statistics - realmadrid.com
• FootballDatabase career profile and stats
• FIFA World Cup profile
• Raúl González Blanco - Goals in International Matches
• Raúl González Blanco - Goals in European Cups
• Ottmar Hitzfeld's interview on AS
• Raúl becomes the second all-time top-scorer in Real Madrid history

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Raúl González

Raúl González - Navigation boxes and awards v • d • e Spain squad – 1996 Summer Olympics 1 Mora • 2 Mendieta • 3 Juanfran • 4 Navarro • 5 Santi • 6 Óscar • 7 Raúl • 8 Roberto • 9 Corino • 10 Ignacio • 11 Idiakez • 12 Karanka • 13 Aizkorreta • 14 Morientes • 15 de la Peña • 16 Lardín • 17 Sietes • 18 Dani • Coach: Clemente v • d • e Spain squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Zubizarreta • 2 Ferrer • 3 Aranzábal • 4 Alkorta • 5 Abelardo • 6 Hierro • 7 Morientes • 8 Guerrero • 9 Pizzi • 10 Raúl • 11 Alfonso • 12 Sergi • 13 Cañizares • 14 Campo • 15 Aguilera • 16 Celades • 17 Etxeberria • 18 Amor • 19 Kiko • 20 Nadal • 21 Luis Enrique • 22 Molina • Coach: Clemente v • d • e Spain squad – UEFA Euro 2000 1 Cañizares • 2 Salgado • 3 Juanfran • 4 Guardiola • 5 Abelardo • 6 Hierro • 7 Helguera • 8 Fran • 9 Munitis • 10 Raúl • 11 Alfonso • 12 Sergi • 13 Casillas • 14 Gerard • 15 Engonga • 16 Mendieta • 17 Etxeberria • 18 Paco • 19 Velasco • 20 Urzaiz • 21 Valerón • 22 Molina • Coach: Camacho v • d • e Spain squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Casillas • 2 Curro Torres • 3 Juanfran • 4 Helguera • 5 Puyol • 6 Hierro • 7 Raúl • 8 Baraja • 9 Morientes • 10 Tristán • 11 de Pedro • 12 A. Luque • 13 Ricardo • 14 Albelda • 15 Romero • 16 Mendieta • 17 Valerón • 18 Sergio • 19 Xavi • 20 Nadal • 21 Luis Enrique • 22 Joaquín • 23 Contreras • Coach: Camacho v • d • e Spain squad – UEFA Euro 2004 1 Cañizares • 2 Capdevila • 3 Marchena • 4 Albelda • 5 Puyol • 6 Helguera • 7 Raúl • 8 Baraja • 9 F. Torres • 10 Morientes • 11 A. Luque • 12 Gabri • 13 Aranzubia • 14 Vicente • 15 R. Bravo • 16 Xabi Alonso • 17 Etxeberria • 18 César Martín • 19 Joaquín • 20 Xavi • 21 Valerón • 22 Juanito • 23 Casillas • Coach: Iñaki Sáez v • d • e Spain squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Casillas • 2 Salgado • 3 Pernía • 4 Marchena • 5 Puyol • 6 Albelda • 7 Raúl • 8 Xavi • 9 F. Torres • 10 Reyes • 11 Luis García • 12 Antonio López • 13 Iniesta • 14 Xabi Alonso • 15 Sergio Ramos • 16 Senna • 17 Joaquín • 18 Fàbregas • 19 Cañizares • 20 Juanito • 21 David Villa • 22 Pablo Ibáñez • 23 Reina • Coach: Aragonés v • d • e La Liga top scorers 1929: Bienzobas | 1930: Gorostiza | 1931: Bata | 1932: Gorostiza | 1933: Olivares | 1934: Lángara | 1935: