40 shades of white: Raul Gonzalez Blanco
The Comeback
After having a small role in his country’s World Cup campaign, Raul returned to Madrid. He was 30 years-old, and after a wonderful start to his career, the last four years of his career – a time he should have been at the peak of his powers – had been mediocre. Florentino Perez had resigned as president that summer and was replaced by Ramon Calderon, Fabio Capello followed as coach.
For most of the 2006-2007 season, it appeared that nothing had changed, the team was fourth in the league trailing leaders Barcelona by 6 points, out of the Champions League in the first knockout round again and heading for an unprecedented fifth trophyless season in a row.
The turn of the year saw Barcelona begin to wobble at the top and Madrid beginning to climb the table. On the 12th May 2007, Real Madrid faced Espanyol while Barcelona faced Real Betis with both sides needing wins to keep their title hopes alive. Real Madrid were 3-1 down at half time, only to win the game 4-3, with their captain scoring the first goal in the comeback. Barcelona drew 1-1 against Betis and Madrid went top of the table and won the League in dramatic fashion.
The Most Spanish Player
The league win seemed to spark some form for Raul, as the Spaniard went on to score 18 goals in the following two seasons, with Madrid defending their title in 2008. In many ways, 2008 was the year of what could have been as Raul was left out of Spain’s Euro’s 2008 and with it, his last realistic chance at international glory. Looking back at their win in the final against Germany, Cadena Ser journalist Maria Bretones said:
"“It was quite sad to think about Raul on that night because he was the most Spanish player, the one who had defended our colours the most. You could say winning the Euros without him was a little strange.”"
He retired from international football as Spain’s top goalscorer with 44 goals.
On 15th February 2009, Raul scored in a 4-0 win over Sporting Gijon. It was his 309th goal for the club, surpassing Alfredo Di Stefano as Real Madrid’s all-time top goalscorer. Di Stefano’s record had stood for 45 years.
Raul’s role at Real Madrid had already started to shrink by the time he broke Di Stefano’s record. In the 2009-10 campaign, he started just 13 times for Madrid despite Manuel Pellegrini saying he was a definite starter. Raul scored his last goal for Real Madrid in the place where it had all began in La Romareda in Zaragosa. I don’t know whether it is irony or poetic that he should score his last goal for Madrid in the same place where it had seemed incapable of scoring his first.