The Angel of Madrid recently celebrated his 40th birthday, so I couldn’t think of a more fitting tribute than to look back on his glimmering professional career.
Early Beginnings
Raul Gonzalez Blanco was born on the 27th June 1977 in the San Cristóbal de los Ángeles suburb of Southern Madrid. He played for the local team until he was 13 years old when he was recruited to his favorite team’s academy, Atletico Madrid. The San Cristóbal was a Rojoblancos stronghold in the early 90s and by all accounts, Raul and his father were die hard Atletico Madrid supporters.
In 1992, Atletico Madrid “eccentric” president, Jesus Gil de Gil, decided that the youth academy was a waste of money and scrapped it. Raul, seeing the error of his ways, switched sides and joined Real Madrid’s academy. He then began meteoric rise through Madrid youth ranks. Starting in Real Madrid C, Raul made appearances for Real Madrid C, B, Castilla and the first team during the 1994-1995 season.
Jorge Valdano had begun to consider Raul for the first team in early October but was concerned the striker would freeze on his debut. He approached Raul with his fears, the striker responded:
"If you want to win, play me. If you want to lose play someone else."
What Should Have Happened and What Happened
On the bus to the stadium, Raul fell asleep so assured of his abilities. The young Spaniard made his debut in the La Remareda, home of Real Zaragosa. The season was nine weeks old, Raul had been 17 for about 3 months. Here is where I am supposed to say “Raul scored a hattrick and Spain went bananas.” Sadly, football is a cruel mistress.
In reality, Raul scuffed a one-one in the first 10 seconds, rounded the keeper and shot over the bar, sent his shot into the goalkeeper on another one-one, skied a shot from inside the six-yard box and hit the bar with a header. Madrid lost 3-2.
Thankfully, Jorge Valdano saw some positives in his misfiring youngster and started him against his former club Atletico Madrid. This time Raul set up one goal, got a penalty for the other and scored the third in a 4-2 win. In that first season, he scored 9 goals, the next season he scored 19, the next 21. Between 1995 and 2004, he reached the 20 goal mark every season bar one. In 1996, he got his first game for Spain against the Czech Republic. He scored his first international goal against Yugoslavia in his third cap.