40 shades of white: Raul Gonzalez Blanco
Records Fall Anyways
The years following Madrid’s ninth European Cup were hard for both the club and Raul. Los Blancos went trophyless for 4 years after their La Liga triumph in 2002/2003, sacking seven coaches during that period.
Raul’s career at Madrid would never be the same after Hampden Park, reaching the 20 goals mark just twice in the following 6 seasons. Despite not scoring as much, the records still fell at his feet. In 2003, Raul scored a double against Germany in a 3-1 win to take him to 31 international goals for his country, making him Spain’s all-time top goalscorer. In 2005, he became the first player to score 50 Champions League goals and consequently surpassed Alfredo Di Stefano as the all-time top goalscorer in the Champions League and European Cup.
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La Roja Blues
Raul had been a stranger to club struggles since his debut in 1994, but, he was only too acquainted with failure at the national level by the time of the 2006 World Cup. Despite scoring 26 goals throughout 5 qualifying campaigns, Raul struggled at the finals of international tournaments. He wasn’t alone.
Spain was infamous for underperforming despite having a world class team.
After scoring twice in a disappointing showing at the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2000 saw Spain improve marginally as they got out of the group stages, losing 2-1 to France in the quarter-finals. Raul scored just once and missed a penalty in the quarter-final to take the game to extra time. Raul started the 2002 World Cup well, scoring three goals in the group stages but picked up an injury in the round of 16. He watched from the sidelines as Spain fell to France once again, this time on penalties. Euro 2004 was a disaster, Raul scored once and Spain fell in the group stages.