Raúl González Blanco (Spanish pronunciation: [raˈul ɣonˈθaleθ ˈβlaŋko]) (born 27 June 1977), commonly known as Raúl, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for North American Soccer League club New York Cosmos as a striker. Raúl was born in the San Cristóbal de los Ángeles neighborhood of Madrid where he played for the local youth team before moving to the Atlético Madrid youth team. He later moved to Real Madrid's youth academy and played at its various levels. In 1994, he signed his first professional contract with the fourth division team Real Madrid C and then was swiftly promoted to the first division team.
Thanks to his goals and appearances, he is considered one of the most important players in the history of Real Madrid.[2][3] Moreover, he is regarded to be one of the greatest Spanish players.[4] Raúl spent 16 years of his career playing for Real Madrid and is the club's all-time top goalscorer with 323 goals, just ahead of Alfredo Di Stéfano, who scored 307 goals.[5] Raúl is also the most capped player in the history of the club with 741 appearances, just ahead of Sanchís. With los Blancos, he won six La Liga titles, three UEFA Champions League titles (scoring in two finals), four Supercopa de España titles, one UEFA Super Cup and two Intercontinental Cup, and is the Champions League's joint all-time leading goalscorer, with Lionel Messi, and second most capped player, behind Ryan Giggs. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the team and retained that position until his departure from the club in 2010.
He became the first player to score 50 Champions League goals when he netted in a 2–1 group stage win over Olympiacos on 28 September 2005,[15] and continues to be the all-time leader in appearances, with 128.[16] He was also the first player to score in two Champions League finals, netting in the finals of both 2000 against Valencia CF in the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, and 2002 against Bayer Leverkusen in Hampden Park, Glasgow. Samuel Eto'o later equaled this feat, scoring in the 2006 against Arsenal and in 2009 against Manchester United, with Lionel Messi also scoring in the same match and later in 2011 against the same team.
Raúl holds the distinction of having never received a red card throughout his 17 years at the professional level.[17] On 11 November 2008, Raúl scored his 300th goal for Real Madrid with a hat-trick against Real Unión, with Real winning the game 4–3 but being eliminated on away goals after draw 6–6 on aggregate.[18] In total, Raúl scored 323 goals for Real Madrid, breaking the long-standing club record of Alfredo Di Stéfano (228) with a volleyed goal against Sporting de Gijón on 15 February 2009. He is presently fourth on the all-time list of La Liga goalscorers, which is headed by Telmo Zarra with 252 goals.[19]
Raúl and fellow long-serving teammate Iker Casillas were both awarded "contracts for life" in 2008 (the terms of which stipulate that it will be renewed annually for as long as they play 30 games each season).[20] On 23 September 2009, Raúl equalled former veteran and legend Manolo Sanchís' league appearance record for Real Madrid,[21] and is second in La Liga behind Andoni Zubizarreta, who played 622 games.
In La Liga competitions, Raúl is the fourth highest goal scorer in the history of the tournament with 228 goals, just behind Telmo Zarra (252 goals), Lionel Messi (249 goals) and Hugo Sánchez (234 goals). He is also the highest Spanish scorer in European national competitions with 256 goals, scoring 228 goals in La Liga and 28 goals in the Bundesliga. Moreover, he is the second most capped player in the history of the Spanish competition, with 550 games played, just behind Andoni Zubizarreta (622 games).
He was named the best striker in the world by IFFHS in 1999, and is the only player that has won the UEFA "Best Forward of the Year" award three times, in 2000, 2001 and 2002.[6] He was the second in the ranking of Ballon d'Or 2001[7] and the third ranked in 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year. In 2004, he was included in the FIFA 100 list as one of the "greatest living footballers". He was also included in the UEFA list of the fifty best European players of the period 1954–2004. He was part of the "European Team Of The Year" of European Sports Media in 1997, 1999 and 2000.[8] He won two Pichichi trophies (1999 and 2001), two "Best Goal Scorer" of UEFA Champions League (2000 and 2001), five Don Balón Award (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002) and one "Best Player of Intercontinental Cup" in 1998.
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