The heart and soul of Real Madrid in Spain since 1994, Raul has been through it all. Good years, great years, and the rare bad year for Real Madrid.
Raul started out in the rival Atletico Madrid's youth system, but made the switch to Real Madrid's youth system in 1990. He remained there for 2 years until he was called up to play for the top flighted club. He at the time was the youngest to ever play for Real Madrid, making his debut for the side when he was just 17.
As a striker, Raul has had the pleasure of playing with some of the greats to ever grace the game that have made their way in and out of Madrid's ranks. He found prolific partnerships alongside Fernando Morientes, and later with the Brazilian, Ronaldo. To date, Raul has made an astonishing amount of appearances for his club which now number over 700. In addition he has made over 100 appearances for his country of Spain and has found success there as well.
Raul is a constant threat in front of the goal mouth and his hard work and constant effort lead to him capitalizing on some gritty goals. He has scored over 300 times for Madrid and has found his name creep up the all time scoring list, recently just passing the great Alfredo di Stefano. For country, Raul netted 102 times, yet he has been left off the squad list in recent games. Raul is still eligible to be called out and has yet to announce his international retirement.
Not only is he a hard worker on the field, but Raul is also a disciplined one. Through his entire career he has never received a red card. As a reward for his immense effort on the field, Raul was appointed club captain in 2003.
Raul currently has a "contract for life" through Real Madrid, which renews itself automatically as long as the striker plays 30 games in a season.
Though Raul may have lost some of his pace and his touch on the ball is not what it used to be, he is still a threat in front of the net. His constant work ethic has rewarded him, and he appears to be destined to play at Real Madrid at least one more year.
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