Raúl González

Raúl González Blanco (raˈul ɣonˈθaleθ ˈβlaŋko; born 27 June 1977), known as Raúl, is a retired Spanish footballer who played as a striker. Raúl is considered one of the most important players in the history of Real Madrid, and regarded as one of the greatest Spanish players of all time.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 Madrids 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.He spent 16 years of his career playing for Real Madrid and is the clubs second all-time top goalscorer with 323 goals. Raúl is also the most capped player in the history of the club with 741 appearances, 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. He is the third highest goalscorer in Champions League history, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and the fifth most capped player. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the team and retained that position until his departure from the club in 2010.In La Liga competitions, Raúl is the fifth highest goal scorer in the history of the tournament with 228 goals, behind Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Telmo Zarra and fellow Real Madrid legend Hugo Sánchez. He is also the highest Spanish scorer in European leagues, 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). Leaving Real Madrid in 2010 and signing for Schalke 04, he scored the 400th goal of his career in February 2012. He signed with the Qatari team Al Sadd in 2012. He won the Qatar Stars League in his first season and he reached 1,000 games played in his career; he is one of only 18 players to have achieved this landmark.Although he did not win any major competitions while playing for the Spanish national football team, he scored a then-record 44 goals in 102 appearances for la Roja, appearing in three FIFA World Cups and two European championships. Raúl took over the captaincy of the side in 2002 and held it until 2006, the year in which he played his last international match for Spain.Raúl was named the best striker in the world by IFFHS in 1999, and is the only player to be named UEFA Club Forward of the Year three times, in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He was the second in the Ballon dOr 2001 and ranked third in the 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the worlds greatest living players, and was included in the UEFA list of the fifty best European players of the 1954–2004 period. He was part of the European Team Of The Year of European Sports Media in 1997, 1999 and 2000. Raúl won two Pichichi trophies (1999 and 2001), the top goalscorer award of the UEFA Champions League (2000 and 2001), five Don Balón Awards (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002) and one Best Player Award at the Intercontinental Cup in 1998.

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