Friday, July 6, 2007
Personal life
Biography
Raúl was born in the
Raúl was a key player in Real Madrid's six big titles from 1998 to 2003. With Real, he won three European UEFA Champions League trophies in 1998, 2000 and 2002, scoring the clinching goal in the 2000 Champions League final. On the domestic scene, he won five Spanish La Liga championships in 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2007. After Fernando Hierro retired from the Spanish national team in 2002, Raúl became the captain for Real Madrid and
Ever since 2003, he has been under heavy criticism by the media and part of the supporters because of his poor performances in the last four years, in which Real Madrid struggled to win a European competition, with no success in either of them. These struggles have seen Raúl relegated at times to the substitutes bench by both club and country, leaving questions as to how much he might have in the tank. It is widely rumoured that the primary reason why Raúl starts in the Real Madrid line-up is because he has tremendous influence in
On 28 September 2005 against Greek power Olympiakos, his 97th UEFA Champions League match, he became the first player to score 50 goals in the history of the tournament, passing Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stéfano. He is currently the top goal scorer of the competition, with 56 goals, scoring the last two in the 1st leg of their knockout stage match-up against Bayern Munich. When he led out the Spanish team against San Marino in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 12 October 2005, he surpassed his predecessor as Spain captain, Fernando Hierro, as the most-capped outfield player (i.e., not a goalkeeper) in Spanish history.
On June 19, with a goal against
About Raúl
Raúl González Blanco (born June 27, 1977), usually referred to simply as Raúl, is a Spanish football forward. He has been playing for Real Madrid at senior level since 1994, where he is the team captain. He has played more than 100 games for the Spanish national team, and is its all-time leading goal scorer with 47 goals. He represented
Raúl is also currently 12th highest goalscorer in the history of
When playing, he wears jersey number 7 for both club and country (prior to World Cup 2002 he wore 10 for