Raul, who was born in Madrid, dreamt when he was a child to play in the Atlético Madrid football team. He would come close to fulfilling his dream (he had just been twice Spanish junior champion with the Atlético), but Jesus Gil Y Gil, the president of the other club of Madrid, suppressed these junior teams because of financial difficulties… to the great displeasure of Raul who therefore slipped through his fingers…

Retrospectively, Gil, as well as many supporters of the Atlético, probably regretted it.

And therefore, it is the Real Madrid, the other city team, which picked up the gem. This is how began the love story between Raul and the Real.

Thanks to the trust Jorge Valano put in him, Raul made his debut in the Liga at the age of 17 years and 5 months, on 10/29/1994, versus Saragosse… and one week after his debut in the Liga Raul scored his first goal… versus the Atlético Madrid… Nice revenge !!!

During the 1994/1995 season, in the championship (let’s call it the “Liga”), Raul scored 9 goals in 28 games, which helped The Real Madrid win the Liga. Almost 18 years old, Raul becomes Spanish champion and a regular player in the Real. UNBELIEVABLE !

The following season (1995/1996), Raul first confirmed in the Liga by scoring 19 goals in 40 games… and then revealed himself on the European stage by scoring 6 goals during the Champions league, including a triplet against Ferenkvaros on10/18/1995. Plus a goal against the Juventus in the quarter-final, even though the Real was later eliminated in the returning game.

Vidéo of the goal scored against the Juve

In 1996/1997, Raul made what is probably his most accomplished season. Indeed, under the direction of Capello, the young prodigy went back to the post of left offensive midfielder. Good choice for Mr.Capello !!!!… Raul scored 21 times in the Liga and offered about 15 assists to his team mates in 42 games.

On 06/14/1997, 10 days before Raul’s 20th birthday, the Real Madrid becomes Spanish champion… against the Atlético Madrid. Raul scores an awesome goal during the game of the crowning.

The most telling game revealing the importance Raul had gained in the Liga was undoubtedly Atlético Madrid vs. Real Madrid on 01/19/1997. The Real, led by one goal at half-time, eventually wins 4-1… Raul makes 2 assists and scores 2 goals, one of which a true piece of art. The new star of the Real receives the ball at 35 meters from the enemy’s goal… After he has dribbled round 4 defenders, Raul outwits the Atlético goal keeper by striking in an impossible angle.

see the goal

On 09/10/1996, Raul is selected for the first time in the Spanish national team versus the Czech Republic (final score : 0-0). On 14/12/1996, versus Yugoslavia, Raul scores his first goal in the national team. He participated in the long Spanish invincibility which ultimately ended on 01/28/1998… against France.

1997/1998 season : Raul began on a good note by scoring 3 goals during the double confrontation Real Madrid-Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup ( outward game : 2-1 for the Barça, the only goal of the Real being scored by Raul ; returning game : 4-1 for the Real, with 2 goals scored by the little prodigy). Until late December everything ran smooth for him.

Proof in video with this superb goal scored against the Real Sociedad

Raul ends the year 1997 at the 5th place of FIFA’s best world player table, and at the 7th place of the Golden Ball’s table, at the age of 20 and a half years. Yet the remaining season was painful for Raul, who was unable to get rid of a tenacious pubalgia. From January to May 1998, Raul consequently scored only 3 goals in 17 games played in the Liga.

But even more than these figures, it was Raul’s play which suffered most, notably his legendary combativeness, triggering the incomprehension of the Spanish press which went mad against poor Raul.

That did not prevent the Real Madrid to win the Champions League (the 7th of its history… 32 years after the previous one). Raul played 11 games and scored 2 goals during the European campaign.

The 1998/1999 season was marked by the consecration in the Intercontinental Cup against the Vasco de Gama (2-1) with Raul’s goal… And what a goal !!!!!!!!

After a superb pass from Seedorf, Raul controls the ball just as superbly (like Platini says : “Control is the most important thing”), dribbles round the last 2 defenders and outwits Vasco’s goal keeper.

video of that goal

It is also during this season that Raul, recently engaged, invents a now famous gesture after every one of his goals : he kisses his engagement ring… which becomes a wedding ring on 06/30/1999 : Raul weds Mamen Sanz.

Below is a picture of the wedding between Mamen and Raul

History will remember that Raul has become a father for the first time, on 02/25/2000, on the eve of a Real Madrid - Barcelona game that the Meringues win 3-0. His son is named Jorge, but Raul will always deny having called him Jorge to pay an homage to his mentor, Jorge Valdano.

On the sport side of things, the Real Madrid wins the 8th Champions league of its history by beating Valencia 3-0 in the Stade de France. Raul was extraordinary during the whole competition !!!!!!

With the arrival of Anelka in the team, Madrid’s prodigy will often play as midfielder during the season. With great success, notably during the final line (quarter-finals, half-finals, and the final) of the Champions league. A strong presence during games, a huge combativeness, very elegant gestures, very precise passes and decisive goals. The young Spaniard scored 10 goals in 15 games as well as 2 assists…

Here is the first one of the two passes by Raul : an assist to Morientes in a game against Porto during the second stage of the tournament

The two goals scored against Manchester United during the returning game on 04/19/2000
The first handsome rolled-up strike and that one after a very good work by Redondo

The assist to Anelka during the outward game of the semi-final versus the Bayern Munich on 05/04/2000 here

The video of the final goal scored in the 3-0 victory vs. Valencia in the final 05/24/2000
the same goal in slow-motion here

Raul ends up best striker of the competition with 10 goals (tie with Jardel and Rivaldo) and receives the UEFA award for best European forward.

Here is Aimée Jacquet’s commentary on Canal + during the slow motion showing of Raul’s goal :
“It falls to the best player in the team, who blends technical expertise and intelligence. And you’ve noticed, despite being tired, how he was judicious and remained cold-blooded. And look, he did it with his right foot, which is not his best.”

Nothing more can be said…

During the Spanish championship The Real Madrid is too erratic to hope winning the title. Nevertheless Raul scores 17 goals and makes 4 assists.

Including this awesome goal - click here

On 04/15/2000, another event takes place in Raul’s career… he scores his 100th goal in Liga at the age of 22 years and 10 months (a record not to be broken soon) vs. Saragossa… The club he started in 5 years and a half before. Nice touch, don’t you think ?

Raul has everything to be happy, people are seeing him winning the Golden Ball and… everything collapses during the Euro 2000.

Raul is exhausted by the 75 or so games he played all championships taken together this season (as well as many Spanish players, who played mainly in one of the three Spanish teams who got to the semi-finals of the Champions league). Raul’s legendary combativeness is affected.

Despite a few good games in the first round of the Euro and a lovely goal scored vs. Slovenia (see it here ) ... The remaining part of the Euro turns to a nightmare for Raul, who, after having missed a last-minute penalty which would have allowed Spain to come back to 2-2 vs. France, becomes the scapegoat for the failure of his team.

I am French and a Raul supporter at the same time, therefore I would just have preferred for Raul not to miss the penalty…
But then it happened to other great players like Platini and Roberto Baggio, who also missed important penalties during great competitions… And strangely enough always at the same spot… above the upper-left corner…

Moreover nothing proves Spain would have won had Raul succeeded in scoring.

But for me it all becomes clear : Raul and his team mates will do a great competition the year they play fewer games, since they were totally washed up during the Euro 2000.

During the start of the 2000/2001 season, Raul has difficulties to overcome the exhaustion produced by the high number of games he played the previous season and during the Euro 2000. He will therefore be only a shadow of himself (in the game not in statistics) until December.
Luckily the Real manages to limit the damage, thanks to the help of an inspired Figo (recruited during the inter-season from arch-rival Barcelone !!! ).

It is during a match played vs. the Rayo Vallecano, in mid-December, that Raul finds his way back to his characteristic class with this extraordinary goal : following a pass by Hierro, he makes a superb control (once more), lobs the goalkeeper with his right foot; and finally shoots with his left foot before the ball touches the ground.

Video of that goal here

The rest of the season for the young prodigy… A dream… 17 goals in 22 games during the championship, a rediscovered presence in the game, some important and decisive goals which helped Madrid win its 28th title of Spanish champion of its history. Thus during the game which led to the coronation, vs. Alavès, on 05/28/2001, the Real Madrid wins 5-0, thanks to a great Raul who scores 2 goals and makes 1 assist to Guti.

Videos :

Raul’s first goal here
The same in slow-motion here
Raul’s second goal in slow-motion here
The assist here

On 02/28/2001, at the age of 23 years and 8 months, Raul becomes the best active striker in the Spanish championship with 113 goals.

Here are the 2 goals scored vs. Malaga
With the first one he equals the best striker playing, Ziganda… see it here
With the second one he exceeds him… see it here

Thanks to all these goals, Raul becomes for the second time in its career “pichichi” of the Liga with 24 goals (once again in front of Rivaldo) and receives for the second time the Bronze Boot.
He also becomes best striker of the Champions league for the second time, with 7 goals, and is given, for the second year straight, the UEFA award for best European forward.

The 2001/2002 season :

There are ups and downs this season :

Let’s begin with the downs (in chronological order) :
- the Golden Ball escapes to Raul… Here is my opinion on the matter, an opinion shared by several key figures of the soccer world (see “They said about Raul”) ;
- The Spanish's Cup final, played on the day of the 100th birthday of the club… a big disappointment. It’s as if every player had been paralysed by the stakes. I don’t like talking about this defeat, which, because of the context, was an even bigger disappointment than, for instance, the final of the Intercontinental Cup lost to Boca Junior in 2000 ;
- The unevenness in the Liga… The Real ends up third… Too bad because the almost perfect understanding between Zidane and Raul on the pitch and the regularity all along the year of the great Makelele could have made us forget our quite unbalanced team and about our so-so season start and our so average defence.

Raul’s tally in Liga this season : 14 goals, 6 assists.

Here are a few of the goals scored by Raul in the Liga this year (you can see the others on the videos page) :
- 1 goal vs. Valladolid… in video here
- 1 goal vs. Deportivo La Coruña … in video here
- 1 assist to Morientes vs. Deportivo La Coruña …here
- 1 goal vs. Alaves… in video here…

The ups (in chronological order) :
- The Spanish Super Cup : Raul scores a hat trick in the returning game of the competition, in Barnabeu stadium, where the Real wins 3-0. The Real and Raul begin in the way they had finished the previous season… with a victory.

- The Champions league obviously…
Raul scores 6 goals and makes 3 assists in 12 games during the competition.

Here are a few goals or assists by Raul in the Champions league :
- 1 goal vs. Anderlecht… in video here
- 1 goal vs. Panathinakos in video here
- 1 assist to Zizou (as we French people like to affectionately call Zidane) vs. Barcelona here
- 1 goal vs. Barcelona… in video here
- 1 goal vs. the Bayer Leverkussen… in video here

He wins, for the third year straight, the UEFA award for best European forward. And he is nominated for the second year straight among the three best players of the championship.

The World Cup in Japan and South Korea started well for Spain and Raul. During the first round, Spain won its first three matches, during which, Raul played excellently, and scored three goals (1 against Slovenia and 2 against South Africa). Unfortunately, during the Round of 16, against the Republic of Ireland, Raul was injured and missed out for the Quarter-final against South Korea. Raul's absence, coupled with disastrous refereeing, was sorely missed by the Spaniards, who were eliminated on penalties.

Season 2002-03: After the international retirement of Hierro, Raul became the captain of the Spanish national team (a post onto which one must assume the young Raul will hold for quite some time) for a friendly match against the Netherlands, which ended 1-1.

Raul missed almost all the beginning of the season through injury: muscular damage and gastroenteritis. Indeed, he took a full month and a half to recover (even disregarding the time required to return to full form). Without their talisman, Real do not show their obvious class in La Liga or the Champions League. After six games, their record read “2 victories, 3 draws, 1 defeat”: not exactly stirring stuff for the Real Madrid faithful.

On the 20th November 2002, Raul was blessed with a second little boy, called Hugo. Just like Jorge, Hugo was born immediately before ‘El Classico’ the derby between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

At the beginning of December, Real won the Toyota Intercontinental Cup, with a 2-0 win over Olympia Asuncion, of Paraguay. Raul made a vital contribution, by feinting before setting up Ronaldo for the first goal (see the "assist" here and to see the presentation of the trophy with Hierro and Raul here).

On December 11th 2002, during the second group phase of the Champions League, Raul scores his 200th and 201st goals in all competitions for Real Madrid. See the 200th goal here.

On February 12th 2003, the Spanish national side played against Germany, and their captain bagged his 30th and 31st goals for his country. This feat made him the best striker in the history of the Spanish national team. See the two goals here and here.

On the first of March, Raul scored a brace of goals against Alavés in the La Liga, thus becoming the fourth best goalscorer in Real Madrid’s history. This took his total to 208 goals, which is one more than Hugo Sanchez. This tally has only been bettered by those of Alfredo Di Stéfano (307 goals), Carlos Alonso Santillana (290 goals), and Ferenc Puskas (236 goals). Unlike the others, Raul still has a lot of gas left in the tank, and will surely continue to score goals for El Real. See the 208th goal here.

Over the following weeks, Real and Raul put in some excellent league performances, but also exhilarated fans in the Champions League. Raul showed off his prowess in the opposition penalty area against Dortmund (1 goal, which you can see here), AC Milan (2 goals, which you can see here and here), and Manchester United (2 goals, which you can see here and here). Unfortunately, Raul’s flamboyant performances were halted when he contracted appendicitis, which kept him out of action for 3 weeks.

During Raul’s period of absence, Real lost the return match against Manchester United in the Quarterfinal of the Champions League (4-3), and lost ground at the top of La Liga, where they trailed Real Sociedad by four points.

In the Semi-Final of the Champions League, Real Madrid (missing Claude Makelele, and with Raul struggling to regain fitness immediately after his illness) were eliminated by Juventus, of Turin. Even if Real were not at full-strength, the team was not balanced, and this was the main cause of Real’s defeat, against a well-organised and well-rounded Juve side.

After the return of the prodigy, Real played five games in La Liga, winning four of them, and drawing the other. Raul notched up 5 goals in this period (see the goal against Celta Vigo here, and the goal against Atlético Madrid here). Thanks to this end-of-season flourish, Real overtook Real Sociedad at the top of the table, and clinched the Spanish Championship for 2002-3. This was the fourth La Liga title of Raul’s illustrious career.

Raul’s statistics – Champions League 2002/3: 9 goals, 5 assists

It should be noted that, at the end of the season, the Spanish National Team suffered a defeat in Greece, and a draw in Northern Ireland, so are not yet certain of their place in Euro 2004. A little patience could be required before Raul and co can crack open the champagne and celebrate securing their place in Portugal for the European Championships.