Raul: Reborn Real to reinforce.

Real Madrid captain Raul believes the Spanish champions will continue to strengthen over the summer as they look to win La Liga in style next season.

Real claimed the Primera Liga title on the last day of last season, but even a dramatic victory over bitter rivals Barcelona was not enough to save coach Fabio Capello as he was accused of deploying negative tactics and an uninspiring side.

Bernd Schuster has since been installed at the Bernabeu and Real have reinforced their squad with the captures of Pepe, Christoph Metzelder, Jerzy Dudek and Javier Saviola.

With David Beckham's departure signalling the death throes of the Galactico era, Raul now expects the club to bring in further fresh blood as they look to build a team capable of thrilling fans in a manner befitting of their predecessors.

"The club say that the team is not full, that other players can come, as they are looking to build a more competitive team," Raul told Marca.

"In attack, the four strikers can go all season (Raul, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gonzalo Higuain and Saviola). There are a lot of people in defence and in the midfield of the pitch, a player can be missing.

"The most important is winning and if we can do it with nice football, then it is far better.

"At the end of the day, when you have won titles, you must have done something good for it.

"Today, it is very difficult to play spectacular football. I think that thanks to unity, sacrifice and the talent that we have, we can win titles."

Raul and Gago niggled.

Captain Raul González and newcomer Fernando Gago were injured during the League game played against Zaragoza. The number '7' had to leave the pitch in the 15-minute mark after ascertaining that the pain that he felt in the back of his thigh was not subsiding. He has a pinched hamstring on his right leg. He will report for training on Monday and the Club's doctors will proceed to perform further tests.

Meanwhile, Fernando Gago finished the match with a strong blow to his right leg quadriceps.

Raúl: "We did nothing right".

Real Madrid's captain talked to the press after the match and made no excuses, saying that the players were responsible for the defeat.

"We always suffer when we don't have control of the ball and today has been very similar to the match against Recreativo Huelva in that respect. Deportivo proved to be dangerous in counterattacks and we never managed to have solid chances on goal."

"Right now we must rest and tomorrow we must talk about what happened tonight. We all tried hard but we did nothing right. We must talk about what we must improve at."

"We make no excuses. We simply haven't played well. We are responsible for this bad image. This shouldn't happen again. We had a chance to get closer to Barcelona and Sevilla, but we didn't use it correctly."

"I expect fans to be bitterly disappointed. We must try to win by playing well. This hasn't been Gago and Marcelo's ideal debut, but they're great players. I'm sure they will do great things for Real Madrid."

Ronaldo receives Bronze Boot as third top scorer; Raúl accepts Fair Play Trophy for Spain.

Awards galore. Three Madridistas made their way on stage at the Zurich Opera House on Monday night to accept various prizes. One of them, Fabio Cannavaro, was honoured twice. Not only was the Italian centre back named 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year, but he also won the Silver Ball as the second best player of the German World Cup, played between 9 June and 9 July. Meanwhile, Ronaldo was presented with the Bronze Boot and Raúl accepted FIFA's Fair Play Trophy on behalf of the Spanish national team.

Bronze Boot for a one of a kind forward
Germany's Miroslav Klose, who score five World Cup goals, received the Golden Boot as the competition's top scorer, while Hernán Crespo and Ronaldo, who each had three goals, took home the Silver Boot and Bronze Boot, respectively. The Bronze Boot is presented to the third top scorer of the FIFA World Cup according to the following criteria: the number of goals scored, then, the number of passes resulting in goals, and third, minutes played.

After the World Cup had ended, several players had tallied three goals on their score sheets, among whom were Ronaldo and Spain's Fernando Torres and David Villa. That is when FIFA proceeded to count goal assists, but because Crespo and Ronaldo were also level in that category, FIFA then moved on to the number of minutes on the pitch each player had seen. Hernán Crespo scored three goals and one assist in 305 minutes, while Ronaldo had three goals and one assist in 409 minutes.

Brazil's '9' arrived in Germany amid controversy about his technique and fitness. Although Ronaldo and Brazil were unable to get get passed the quarterfinals, the Madridista forward scored three goals in five matches, making him the top Brazilian scorer in the competition and the Bronze Boot presented by Adidas winner.

Ronaldo played in five matches during the final phase of the German World Cup, for a total of 409 minutes. The striker also served up one assist (to Adriano against Australia) and had a total of 15 shots on goal, eight of which were in between the woodwork.

His best match came against Japan, which earned him the Budweiser Man of the Match honour. When it was made official that Ronaldo had won the Bronze Boot, Roy Hodgson, member of FIFA's Technical Study Group, stated, “Ronaldo received this award thanks to two excellent goals he scored, especially the first, which came at a key moment of the match. Moreover, his performance throughout the match was also decisive in this process.”

We cannot forget that in Germany Ronaldo became the all-time top scorer in the history of the World Cup after finding the back of the net against Ghana. His 15th goal was one more than Germany's Gerd Müller. With four goals in the French World Cup and eight in the Japan & Korea, Ronaldo moved ahead of Jurgen Klismann (11), Sándor Kocsis (11) and Just Fontaine (13).

Fair Play Trophy handed to Raúl
Real Madrid's number ‘7’ also shared the spotlight at the FIFA World Player 2006 gala. The Madridista forward flew to Zurich as the captain the Spanish national team, and there he joined coach Luis Aragonés to receive the Fair Play Trophy, which Spain shared with Brazil, being that both sides shared the same number of points in the World Cup's Fair Play ranking. Representing Brazil, who take home the piece of hardware for the third time, were Ricardo Teixeira and Ronaldo. FIFA's Technical Study Group (TSG) awarded each team a total of 886 of the 1,000 possible points.

The award is presented to the team that shows the best behaviour on and off the pitch according to a points system and criteria established by the FIFA Committee for Ethics and Fair Play. Every match is evaluated, but only teams that move on to the Round of 16 are considered candidates for the award, which consists of the Fair Play Trophy, medals for the players and coaching staff, a diploma, and 50,000 dollars worth of football equipment to be used for youth development.

The evaluation is carried out according to six criteria which place an emphasis on the positive rather than the negative aspects of a team’s performance. The number of cards a team receives is the only way that points can be deducted. The other criteria taken into consideration are: positive play, with points awarded for an attractive, offensive-minded playing style; respect for opponents; respect for the officials; behaviour of the coaching staff and the behaviour of supporters.

Big names still snubbed.

David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Raul Gonzalez are three of Real Madrid's biggest stars.

All three have been snubbed by their national team coaches and can't find a way back.

Former England captain Beckham was dropped by Steve McClaren after the World Cup and, despite the absence of eight squad players due to injuries, there is no room for the Madrid midfielder for today's friendly against Netherlands in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Van Nistelrooy won't be there either, even though he scored four goals in Madrid's 4-1 Spanish league victory over Osasuna on Sunday.

Netherlands coach Marco van Basten dropped the striker after the World Cup and Van Nistelrooy has since said that he won't play for the national team as long as the former AC Milan soccer great is in charge.

Gonzalez, currently playing midfield on the right side for Madrid, has fallen out of favour with Spain's veteran coach Luis Aragones, whose team hosts Romania today. This is the second game Raul has missed, even though he is Spain's all-time leading scorer with 44 goals from 102 matches.

"With me he has never played as a right-sided midfielder," Aragones said. "Raul can play in any position, but in my opinion he is a second striker."

The games are among 17 friendlies being played alongside seven Euro 2008 qualifying games.

Three-time champion Germany seems to be cruising to the championship -- being co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland -- and is confident of making it four wins in four Group D games when it visits Cyprus. A victory will mean the Germans regain top spot from the Czech Republic, which hosts Denmark in a friendly today. The Cypriots, who have never come close to reaching one of soccer's big events, outplayed Ireland 5-2 in Group D action a month ago.

British bookmakers rate the Germans the 11-2 favourites to win Euro 2008. Germany has won five games in a row.

Portugal, the other World Cup losing semifinalist, is struggling to qualify, however. Luiz Felipe Scolari's team has never won a major soccer title and currently lies in fifth place in Group A, six points behind group leader Serbia, as it hosts Kazakhstan in Coimbra, Portugal.

In other Group A games, second-place Finland should be confident of beating next-to-last Armenia at home. Belgium and Poland, just behind the top two, face each other in Brussels, Belgium.

The other two Euro 2008 games -- Israel-Croatia and Macedonia-Russia -- are both in Group E and the results could cause major problems for England.

England could slip to fourth if Israel and Croatia tie. England, Croatia, Israel and Macedonia each have seven points and Russia five.

Raul clashes with Diarra at Real Madrid training.

Raul clashed with Mahamadou Diarra at Real Madrid training yesterday.

The Mali international clattered into Antonio Cassano during a bounce game and later also battered Raul, which sparked a furious reaction from the club captain.

Raul turned on Diarra, but the big African shrugged him off. It took coach Fabio Capello and Emerson to calm the tense stand-off.

However, at the end of the session, Diarra and Raul were spotted laughing and joking.

Aragones says Raul will return to Spanish team.

Spain coach Luis Aragones intends to recall Raul Gonzalez to the national team after his recent omission.

Aragones dropped Raul for the first time in 10 years last week when he named an 18-man squad for Saturday`s 2008 European Championship qualifier with Sweden and a friendly with Argentina four days later.

"Raul will be in the national team ... because he`s a man who knows how to earn it," Aragones told Spanish national radio on Wednesday.

Aragones, who could be fired if Spain loses to Sweden, praised Raul - Spain`s all-time leading scorer with 44 goals from 102 appearances - for a selfless reaction to losing his place.

"Raul made a great remark that it`s the team for which everything is at stake. The national coach might also run the risk of losing or keeping his job but I think this is minor compared to many other things," Aragones said.

Raul`s omission coincided with his return to scoring form last week. Without a goal for Real Madrid for nearly a year, the 29-year-old striker became the Champions League`s all-time leading scorer when he got two goals in a 5-1 win over Dynamo Kiev and added another in a 1-1 league draw with Atletico.

Aragones warned that the game with Group F leader Sweden in Solna was vital, following last month`s humiliating 3-2 defeat against Northern Ireland.

"We have to win at all cost. We could draw but that wouldn`t be a good result," the coach said.

Raúl and Van Nistelrooy left out from their respective National Team.

Luis Aragonés has dropped Spain captain Raúl González from his squad for the upcoming UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying match against Sweden.

Vicente Rodríguez, Joaquín Sánchez and Mariano Pernía have also been excluded from the team as well as Raúl, who has been in the international set-up since 1996, during which time he has played 102 matches, scored 42 goals and never been dropped. His absence from the national side for the Sweden match on 7 October has come as a huge surprise in Spain, especially after the 29-year-old scored twice in Madrid’s UEFA Champions League match against FC Dynamo Kyiv in midweek.

But three Madrid players included in the Spain National side. They are - Casillas, Reyes, Sergio Ramos.

Ruud van Nistelrooy was again left out of the Dutch squad on Friday when coach Marco van Basten named his 22 players for the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Albania.

The Real Madrid striker hit out at Van Basten earlier this week, saying he had been dropped from the post-World Cup squads for reasons other than footballing ones.

Van Basten said it was not the end of Van Nistelrooy's international career.

"Now it is up to him to prove we are wrong," Van Basten told a news conference on Friday. "We spoke about it in the past and he knows how we think about him and we have heard his opinion.

"This was his reaction and his choice. It was not neat and stylish but I also have been a player and understand that this is a reaction from a disappointed player.

"However, with his experience he should not have done it like this. Unluckily for Ruud there is more competition up front than in our midfield."

Van Nistelrooy was dropped after the World Cup together with Mark Van Bommel, although the latter makes his comeback after missing three matches.

Raúl, all-time top scorer of the Champions League.

Raul become the all-time top scorer of the Champions League after his two goal against yesterdays match.

Raul played very well and scored two great goals.

Congratulation to him.

"Raul should be benched."

According to readers of Spanish sportspaper Marca, Raul should be left out of Real Madrid's starting line-up.

The striker has been receiving competition from strikers as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jose Antonio Reyes, and the imminent return of Ronaldo might leave the Spaniard benched.

Sixty percent of the voters, 29,000 in total, would like for coach Fabio Capello to leave Raul on the bench for the coming matches.



COMMENTS:
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I think Raul is a great player and there is no doubt about it. But sometime luck will not favour you and sometime time will not be good for you. Just this is happened with Raul. I think he need some time to regain him and become the original RAUL. And I think leave him on the bench and practice with the team will be good for him. I hope he will soon get back his form back soon and will be back for the Real Madrid starting line-up. Wishing him very best luck.

Raul set for chop against Sociedad.

Real Madrid captain Raul is set to be dropped for the club’s weekend fixture against Real Sociedad after the team's abysmal showing in the 2-0 defeat to Lyon on Wednesday.

“Raul is not untouchable,” coach Fabio Capello said last week. “In this team there are none guaranteed (a place). He is training well, but if things go wrong it will be necessary to turn to somebody else.”

Capello is likely to pick Brazil international Robinho in the former talisman's place. Robinho excelled in Brazil's 3-0 win over Argentina recently and was one of the few shining lights in the nation's World Cup campaign.

The Spanish press have indicated that Raul may not be the only change for Sunday's match. Antonio Cassano and David Beckham were substituted alongside Raul in the Lyon match and could face the axe.

Featured Player: Raúl González Blanco.

Raúl González Blanco - The Finisher.

June 27, 1977

Raúl

Personal information
Full name	Raúl González Blanco
Date of birth
Place of birth	Madrid, Spain
Height	180cm
Nickname	El Niño Raúl
Position	Centre Forward Striker
Club information
Current club	Real Madrid
Number	7
Youth clubs
1990–1992 1992–1994	Atlético Madrid Real Madrid
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1994–present	Real Madrid	400 (180)
National team**
1996–present	Spain	100 (44)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 15 Aug 2006.

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Raúl has been playing for Real Madrid at senior level since 1994. He currently is the captain of both Real Madrid and the Spanish National Team, being its all-time leading scorer. He wears jersey number 7 when playing for either team.

Raúl was born in the Madrid suburb of Villaverde Alto. After winning his spurs as a member of provincial team San Cristobal de Los Angeles, his father signed him to the Athletico Madrid youth team at the age of 13. Raul rose through the ranks, winning the national title with the Under-15's, and seemed destined to join the professional side when Atletico President Jesus Gil dissolved the club's entire youth scheme in an effort to save money.

Deprived of a team to play for, Raul turned to local rivals Real Madrid, where success was quickly forthcoming: he began the 1994-5 season in Real's C team, scoring 13 goals in the first seven games. In October 1994, coach Jorge Voldano picked the gifted teenager in his first team. At just 17 years and four months, Raul became the youngest player ever to wear a Real Madrid shirt. In so doing, he nudged aside Emilio Butragueño, a star in his own right, and was soon well on the way to becoming Spain's new sensation. He scored nine times in his first season from 28 appearances, including one in his second game against Atletico, and won a Spanish league championship medal. Since making his debut against the Czech Republic in October 1996, Raúl's performances for Spain have very much mirrored the nation's fortunes, Spain being dubbed the "greatest underachievers" in international football.

Raúl was a key player in Real Madrid's last six big titles, three European Champions Leagues (1998, 2000 and 2002) scoring the clinching goal in the champions league final of 2000 and three National Championships (1997, 2001 and 2003). After Fernando Hierro retired from the Spanish national team in 2002, Raúl became the captain for Real Madrid and Spain.

Ever since, he has been under heavy criticism by the media and part of the supporters because of his poor performances in the last two years, in which Real Madrid struggled to win a title in Spain and in European Champions Leagues, with no success in either of them. These struggles have seen Raúl relegated at times to the substitutes bench by both club and country leaving questions as to how much he might have in the tank.

Raúl is a striker who is able to link attack and midfield effectively.

At 1.80m in height and just over 68 kg, Raúl is very mobile and light on his feet, and likes to switch positions or go out wide. He can put his team-mates through into great positions, and create chances for himself even against the toughest markers. Originally an out-and-out striker, thanks to his versatility he has developed link-up play, allowing him to play in the hole behind the front men.

For his country, Raúl scored 44 goals in 95 international matches (as of June 19, 2006). He played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and Euro 2004. On 28 September 2005 against Greek power Olympiakos, his 97th UEFA Champions League match, he became the first player to score 50 goals in the history of the tournament, passing Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stéfano. Raúl is also currently 10th highest goalscorer in the history of Spain's top flight, with 180 goals in 400 games. All of these goals were for Real Madrid, making Raúl the club's third highest goalscorer of all time. This might improve as Raúl is still playing for the club.

When he led out the Spanish team against San Marino in a World Cup qualifier on 12 October 2005, he surpassed his predecessor as Spain captain, Fernando Hierro, as the most-capped outfield player (i.e., not a goalkeeper) in Spanish history.

On June 19, with a goal against Tunisia, Raúl became the 18th player to score in 3 different editions of the FIFA World Cup. He has scored in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Honors

• Royal Order's gold medal for Sports Merit (2006)
• 4 x Spanish League (1995, 1997, 2001, 2003)
• 3 x Spanish Super Cup (1997, 2001, 2003)
• 2 x Top Scorer of the Spanish League (1999, 2001)
• 3 x UEFA Champions League (1998, 2000, 2002)
• 1 x European SuperCup (2002)
• 2 x Intercontinental Cup (1998, 2002)
• Voted Best Player of 1996/97 season after 21 goals in 42 games
• Leading scorer for the Spanish national team
• 3 x Champions League Best Forward (2000, 2001, 2002)
• 1998 Most Valuable Player, Intercontinental Cup
• 1999 IFFHS World Goalgetter
• 2000 Spanish outstanding sportsman
• 2 x Bronze Boot of Europe (1999, 2001)
• 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year, Bronze award
• 2001 European Footballer of the Year, Silver award
• Scored the 800th goal in Spain's national team history, March 27, 1999 vs Austria
• Scored the 900th goal in Spain's national team history, September 7, 2002 vs Greece
• Spanish national team all-time leading scorer
• Most appearances for an outfield player in the Spanish national team
• Top active scorer in La Liga
• Top UEFA Champions League appearances
• UEFA Champions League all-time leading scorer
• 2 x UEFA Champions League Top Scorer
• 2 goals in 3 UEFA Champions League Finals