About

Raúl González Blanco, simply known as Raúl, is a Spanish footballer who plays for Spanish giants Real Madrid.

He is a three-time winner of the UEFA Champions League and is Real Madrid's all-time leading scorer with 312 goals, as well as being 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, and has scored considerably more goals (44) than any other player for the Spanish national team.

Background

Rau'l was born on 27 June, 1977 in Madrid, Spain, and has been living there for his whole life.

Hel grew up in the Marconi colony of San Cristóbal de los Ángeles, a modest district of Madrid. His father Pedro was a staunch supporter of Atletico Madrid, where Raúl played as a young boy after a brief spell at San Cristóbal.

Club Football

Real Madrid

Rau'l has become synonymous with records in the world of soccer. Hundreds of matches, hundreds of goals, an enviable track record, and a Gold Medal for Sports Merit are just a few of the countless accomplishments of one of the best Spanish football players of the last 50 years.

Raúl embodies Real Madrid’s core values of commitment, hard work, and composure every time he dons the team shirt, the only one he’ll ever wear in Spain according to him. One of his greatest accomplishments is being the all-time top-goal-scorer in Real Madrid's history with 312 goals as well in the history of the Champions League. He’s also a three-time UEFA Club Football Best Forward Award winner and a two-time Champions League Golden Boot winner.

A quick glance at Raúl’s track record hints at his greatness. He has won 14 important titles which alone are enough to crown him as one of the greatest men in the history of Real Madrid. He made his First Division debut when he was only 17 years old and his career has rarely experienced a downturn since.

Raúl is a product of Atletico Madrid’s youth system but was picked up by Real Madrid in 1992/93.

He began the 1994-95 season in Madrid's C-team, but after a flurry of sixteen goals in seven games, he was promoted to the first team by 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.

Over the next eight seasons, he won several honours, including another three La Liga titles and three Champions League trophies.

Raúl took over the captaincy of Real Madrid when Fernando Hierro departed in 2003, a responsibility he holds to this day. Unusually for such a successful and long-serving player, and despite appearing in two finals, 2002 (in which he scored) and 2004, Raúl has never won the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup).

He became the first player to score fifty Champions League goals when he netted in a 2-1 group stage win over Olympiacos on 28 September 2005, and continues to be the all-time leader in both Champions League goals (64) and appearances (123). He is also the only player to score in two Champions League finals, netting in the finals of both 2000 vs. Valencia in Paris, and 2002 vs. Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow.

Raúl holds the distinction of having never received a red card throughout his 14 years at the professional level.Earlier this season, on 11 November 2008, Raúl 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. He has scored 312 career goals for Real Madrid, breaking the long-standing club record of Alfredo di Stéfano with a volleyed goal vs. Sporting Gijon on 15 February 2009. He is also the top active La Liga goalscorer with 219 of his 312 goals scored in La Liga matches, and is presently joint-5th (with Quini) on the all-time list, which is headed by Telmo Zarra with 251 goals. Raúl holds the record of all-time top La Liga scorer for Real Madrid with 219, a record previously held by Alfredo di Stéfano who scored 216 out of an overall La Liga tally of 227 in a Real Madrid shirt, for whom he played between 1953 and 1964.

Although he was awarded a 'contract for life' in 2008 - the terms of which stipulate that it will be renewed annually for as long as he plays 30 games per season - Raúl declared, on 25 February 2009, that he may well end his professional career at Real Madrid in 2011 and said he may consider playing for one more year in North America.

Real Madrid

International Football

Spain

Raúl made his debut with Spain in 1996 against the Czech Republic. He has won 65 matches, drawn 23, and lost just 14 with the Spanish national side. He is the only active footballer to have played more than 100 games for his country (102) and he is the second-most capped player of all time after Andoni Zubizarreta. He is also the only active player in the world to have played in 11 World Cup matches. Raúl has scored 44 goals for Spain, surpassing the likes of Hierro, Butragueño, Di Stéfano and Santillana.

Raul

International Goals

Awards and Honours

Real Madrid

• 6 La Liga titles: 1994-95, 1996-97, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07, 2007–08
• 4 Spanish Super Cup titles: 1997, 2001, 2003, 2008
• 3 UEFA Champions League titles: 1997–98, 1999–00, 2001–02
• 1 UEFA Super Cup title: 2002
• 2 Intercontinental Cup titles: 1998, 2002
• All time top scorer: 312 goals

Spain

• All time top scorer: 44 goals

Personal Awards

Career Statistics

M = Matches, G = Goals, A = Assists

Personal Info

Raúl loves spending time with his family whenever he can. The eldest of his four children is named Jorge, after coach Jorge Valdano, and his second-born is Hugo, named after childhood hero Hugo Sánchez, and his third is Mateo, named after German footballer Lothar Matthäus.

Raúl's goal celebration has consisted of kissing his wedding ring as an acknowledgment to his wife.

In addition to his greatest passion, football, he also likes hunting, which he isn’t able to do as often as he would like. An avid reader, he is a great fan of author Arturo Pérez Reverte. He loves all sorts of Spanish music and is passionate about bullfighting.

Wife / Girlfriend

Raúl's wife is Mamen Sanz and she is a Spanish model.

Sponsors

Important Links

References