Introduction
Since times immemorial humankind has taken pride in its outstanding members who attain success in certain sphere including not only sciences or arts but also sports. Already the Ancient Greeks praised their heroes who won the Olympics, with the team spirit dominating the population that united in its support of the worthiest. Nowadays the interest in sports is still unquenchable, and one of the popular activities attracting millions of excited fans worldwide is football. During the championships stadiums teem with overheated supporters, and the heroes of the game are adored and nearly worshipped by whole nations. Among the modern football idols stands Raul Gonzalez, a unique Spanish forward who has never received a red card throughout his fifteen years of active participation in professional football.
Main Body
It appears that the football path envisaged by fortune for Raul Gonzales Blanco started already at his early age. Born on 27 June 1977 in Madrid, Raul grew up in a modest neighborhood, the Marconi colony of San Cristobal de los Angeles, and made his first steps on the football pitch as a member of Atletico Madrid, the favorite team of his father Pedro. When the local club was experiencing a financial collapse and had to close their youth set-up, the football beginner was invited to a rival club Real, and this occasion proved to be crucial for his brilliant future. The ascent of the talented forward up the Madridista factory cannot be seen as anything less than meteoric. Within one year 1994, which he started as a player of Real Madrid C-team, Raul scored an impressive bouquet of sixteen goals in nine games and was promoted to the first team by Jorge Valdano. Being only seventeen years old, Raul thus became the youngest player ever in Real Madrid history. The newly-born football legend started his triumphant procession through the football Olympus by debuting against Real Zaragoza on 29 October 1994 and successfully scoring in a game against his former club Atletico Madrid five days later. All in all, Raul’s appearances with Real Madrid in 1994–1995 resulted in nine goals that helped his club win the championship of the season.
However inspired Raul might have been in respect to his breathtaking career, his young age did not always act in his favor. In 1996 the national coach of the Spanish team, Javier Clemente, preferred not to choose the young forward for Euro 96 since he considered him to be too young for the responsibility the tournament required. Thus Raul had to wait patiently until he got the chance for his first international debut in a game against Czech Republic in October 1996. By the end of the 1998–1999 season the forward earned a title of “pichichi”, with his twenty-five goals becoming the league’s top scorer (“Raúl González Blanco Profile” at Football Database; “Raúl González Blanco Player Profile” at Real Madrid C.F. Official Website). His commitment and dedication together with consistent goal–scoring at club level finally convinced the coaches of his reliability and value, and earned him a stable position of a striker in the national side of Spanish football.
Having established his reputation with the coaches, Raul enjoyed an immense variety of matches marked by his goal-scorer talent. In the period between 1998 and 2006 he participated in three World Cups and demonstrated a striking stability of play scoring at least one goal in each of the World Cup tournaments. In 1998 he helped him team win the first European Cup in thirty-two years, performing brilliantly in the final game against Juventus in Amsterdam. In the same year Raul digressed from his usual style of scoring from successful combination and cooperation with his team–mates, and drove in a solo goal that secured a 2–1 victory over Vasco da Gama for the Spanish team in World Club Cup final in Japan. Two years later Raul assisted his team in reaching the top of European football once again defeating Valencia; and repeated the story of success again in 2002 with a 2–1 victory over the Leverkusen team. Overall, in the early 2000s he demonstrated an incredible quantity of goals scored and therefore continuously won Champions League title as the best forward. (“Raúl González Blanco Profile” at Football Database)
Raul’s exemplary excellence, dedication, passion and commitment to his profession earned not only adoration of football fans but also high respect of the fellow players. To honor his achievements, Raul was appointed to the post of captain of the national team in July 2002, taking it over from Hernando Fierro who was transferred to Qatar’s Al Rayyan. Raul’s name has literally become a synonym for football on the whole and Spanish football in particular. Though in the recent years his international success has been marred by a series of poor performances at international football events, in 2008, together with his fellow teammate Iker Casillas, he was honored by a contract for life that expires in 2011 but can be renewed each year as long as Raul plays thirty games within the season. Therefore there still remains a possibility of resuming him for the national side, since he has not announced international retirement so far.
Together with unprecedented professional achievements, the side of Raul that rouses adoration of millions is his personality. He is an embodiment of traditional values, a model family man, with his internationally famous ritual of kissing the wedding ring after each scored goal thus expressing homage to his wife. Married to a Spanish model Maria del Carmen “Mamen” Redondo Sanz, Raul is a happy father of four sons and a daughter, Maria, and loves spending time with his large family whenever he can afford it. It is remarkable that the forward’s love of football has expressed itself, inter alia, in the names of his sons: Jorge, named after Raul’s coach Jorge Valdano, Hugo after Raul’s childhood hero Hugo Sanchez, and twins Hector and Mateo named after Hector Rial and Lothar Matthaeus. According to official information, Raul’s interests are not limited to the game of football only: on the one hand, he is a passionate hunter and a big fan of bullfighting; on the other hand, he is not a stranger to Spanish music and literature, with his favorite writer being Arturo Perez Reverte. (“Raúl González Blanco Player Profile” at Real Madrid C.F. Official Website)
Conclusion
Raul Gonzalez Blanco represents a hero of our times, uniquely combining professional achievements and homely values, and bringing the message of diligence, devotion and tolerance to the world. In this sense the words of his coach Jorge Valdano uttered upon awarding Raul with Di Stefano Trophy appear mostly revealing: “He makes opportunities out of problems and is great at counterattacking. He’s in the habit of beating everybody. He’s proven his ability to react and he’s an example of a footballer and of morale” (“Raúl wins the Di Stéfano Trophy”).
Works Cited
“Raúl González Blanco Player Profile.” RealMadrid.com. Real Madrid C. F. Official Web Site, n.d. Web.
“Raúl González Blanco Profile.” footballdatabase.com. footballdatabase, n.d. Web.
“Raúl wins the Di Stéfano Trophy.” RealMadrid.com. Real Madrid C. F. Official Web Site, 2008. Web.