5/11/08

Raul Gonzales

Raúl González Blanco (born June 27, 1977 in Madrid, Spain), usually referred to simply as Raúl, is a Spanish professional football forward. He has been playing for Real Madrid at senior level since 1994, and is the team captain since 2003. He is also a member of the Spanish national team, and is its all-time leading goal scorer with 44 goals. He represented Spain in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup tournaments. With Real Madrid, he has won the UEFA Champions League three times, and is the all-time leading scorer of that competition with 61 goals.

Raúl is also currently 7th highest goalscorer in the history of Spain's top flight, with 205 goals in 482 games. All of these goals were for Real Madrid, making Raúl the club's 2nd highest goalscorer of all time. He is also called 'El siete' (The Seven), 'El Angel del Madrid' (Madrid's Angel), 'El que nunca hace nada' (The man who never does anything) and 'El Capitán' (The Captain) by fans and pundits.

When playing, he wears jersey number 7 for both club and country (except WC'98 and EC'00 he wore 10 for Spain). He has been wearing the number 7 shirt for Real Madrid since he was 19.

His current contract with Real Madrid runs until 2011 and will be extended for a year each as long as he plays at least 30 official games for Real Madrid in his last year of a contract. This means that he will likely play for the club for the rest of his career.[1] He is considered by many to be one of the greatest Spanish Footballers of all time.



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