Raúl retires from football
End of the run... Raúl has today announced his retirement from football.
There has been sadness across the football world today as Spanish legend Raúl González Blanco, otherwise known as Raúl, has today revealed that he will be retiring from playing football with immediate effect, with a hope of now going into football management.
Raúl's career started off in the Real Madrid reserve teams, playing at C for a few months before being promoted to B. However, it only took another few months for him to be in the main team for the Spanish giants, and his career there proved to be extremely successful, going on to be one of the Real Madrid greats.
At the time, he broke the record for the youngest player ever to play for Real Madrid's senior side, but age wasn't a factor in his performance back then. Within his two first games, at 17 years old, he had made 1 assist and scored once. This was definitely a sign of things to come for Raúl and Real Madrid fans alike.
He won a series of trophies at Real Madrid in his 16 year career, including 3 La Liga trophies, 3 UEFA Champions League trophies, becoming captain in the process.
Raúl also broke the goalscoring record and came close to breaking the La Liga appearance record, but injuries in his last few seasons ruined all hope of beating Andoni Zubizarreta.
In 2010, Real Madrid fans were dismayed as Raúl made a shocking move to Bundesliga side Schalke 04, maybe with a hope of bringing success to them, too.
However, his Schalke career would sometimes highlight the injuries sustained in his Real Madrid career, although he got off to a great start, scoring on his Schalke debut, and was on great form most of the time he was playing,
However, Raúl announced that his future wasn't in Europe, before leaving the Bundesliga side at the end of his contract. Schalke retired the no. 7 for an indefinite period as Raúl had made that much of an impact.
In the summer of 2012, Raúl joined Qatari team Al Sadd, where he helped the side win their first Qatar Stars League in five years. Al Sadd are his final club, before announcing his retirement today.
Speaking of his retirement, Raúl said...
"Today marks the end of a career that I can only describe as a dream. From starting out at Real Madrid, to becoming their record goalscorer, my entire career just doesn't seem like it's real. People have been chanting my name for over 20 years, I've been hailed as people's inspiration, and now all that suddenly comes to an end over a small speech."
"To start off, I'd like to thank Jorge Valdano, as without him, none of this would probably have ever happened. Then I'd like to thank every single manager over the years who has been at Real Madrid, Schalke and Al Sadd, as well as every single player I've ever played with. They have all been a part of this dream career, and the decision to end it was one that had me up at night. I will hope to get into football management as soon as I can, but I understand that it'll be an extremely tough task. Thank you all and goodbye."
Raúl did say he wanted to get into football management as soon as possible, but with very few spaces currently open, it may be a long, long wait for the Spanish legend. Although anything is possible in Raúl's world...
