Post by Golden_Boy™ on Feb 2, 2009 16:09:52 GMT -1
Good article by Sid Lowe.
Raúl the untouchable returns to rival Di Stéfano at Real's top table
The Real Madrid captain seemed to be a spent force - but he has now equalled the club's goalscoring record
Some words are permanently embossed on the printing presses, from "Immigrants responsible for all evils of earth (especially collapsing house prices)", to "Diana: what really happened?", and the insistence on any Real Madrid-related deal being "real" when you don't even say it like that, for goodness sake! It's not just the English, either: in Spain, it's not all "Betis orgasm" and "The fu*k of the century". AS splashed on "galactic wedding" the day Florentino Pérez's daughter got married, "galactic dinner" when the squad ate out, and "galactic surplus" thanks to a healthy tax return, while try as they might – and they seem not to be trying at all – Sport and El Mundo Deportivo just can't help turning to their imaginative "Messi! Messi! Messi!".
But over the last few years one headline in particular just would not go away: "Raúl always returns." The Real Madrid striker could do nothing for months then one moment of inspiration and, Bob's your uncle (well he is mine), there it was: "Raúl always returns". Mostly, it was nonsense – unless by "always" they meant "every six months or so" and by "returns" they meant "scores a goal" – but it revealed the untouchable, venerated status to which he had been elevated and the desire to bring him back.
Raúl went four seasons without going past 11 league goals, three without getting into double figures. Stripped of the incontestable authority offered by his previously superb stats, his defenders zealously insisted on his work rate – even though one of his former coaches privately notes that it's often "counterproductive", motivated by the desire to be seen rather than really help. They invoked his leadership, too – even if one former team-mate describes that as "a myth". They jumped on those who dared suggest that, perhaps, maybe, you know, it might be an idea for him not to be in the team; those who said so were turned into pariahs, not just blokes who thought there might be better players around. One former footballer had to phone Marca and AS to plead with them not to reprint an interview in which he had been critical of the Real Madrid captain.
But despite the protection and the diversionary tactics, there was no escaping that Raúl's performances had dipped. Watching old matches laid bare the change – gone were the tiptoeing runs, the dashes to the near post, the impeccable first touch. He looked bigger, slower, more hunched. When, in the summer of 2006, it was privately suggested to one of his team-mates that Raúl hadn't played well for a few months, the barbed reply said it all: "A few years, more like".
You even wondered if it was all over. He might have been only 29 but he'd racked up more matches than many a 30-something footballer – more than David Beckham, then 31, and the 33-year-old Fabio Cannavaro. Psychologically, too, he had borne the burden of being Madrid's captain – a role he takes supremely, almost pathologically seriously – during three years of failure. His bitterness at the galácticos' subversion of seriousness and discipline was palpable. His own culpability as captain in a collapse marked by dreadful dressing-room relations, institutional instability and his own confrontation with Ronaldo meanwhile was often overlooked.
But Raúl survived the fallout – in fact, he emerged stronger. And, eventually, he actually did return – sort of, at least. Not as one of the world's best, as he might have claimed to be in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Not, despite his laughable nomination as Marca's player of the season for 2007-08, as one of Spain's very best. And not as a player good enough, in Luis Aragonés's opinion, to go to Euro 2008 – a competition that Spain won without him after years of him failing to make a real impact on a major tournament. But certainly as an effective footballer. In 2007-08 he scored 18 league goals, his best return in seven seasons, as Madrid won the league. And on Saturday night against Numancia he racked up his 15th for 2008-09, his ninth in the league, making him Real Madrid's top scorer this season.
But it wasn't that it was Raúl's 15th that mattered; that wasn't why the Pajaritos applauded him as he leapt into the sky and pointed at the name on the back of his shirt. It was that he had scored his 307th goal, making him Real Madrid's joint top scorer ever, drawing level with the man many Spaniards consider the greatest player of all time, Alfredo Di Stéfano.
It probably wasn't the way Raúl would have chosen to equal Di Stéfano. Numancia versus Real Madrid at the division's smallest ground wasn't the weekend's best game – Athletic's 3–2 win over Málaga was better, as was Valencia's 3–2 win against Almería, as, in fact, were almost all the weekend's matches. He didn't play well – in fact, he was awful. It wasn't the only historic moment – Leo Messi came from the bench to rescue Barcelona with another ludicrously good display, scoring the club's 5,000th goal. It didn't make him Spain's all-time top scorer – five men still stand above him. And it certainly wasn't the weekend's best goal – that was scored by Getafe's Ikechukwu Uche. Instead, it came courtesy of a poor shot, a worse save and an easy finish.
Yet wherever you look, it was still the goal they were all talking about, and an oddly appropriate way to reach the record. Never blessed with dazzling skills, Raúl has scored with some wonderful strikes but it's always been more about the effective than the aesthetic. As El País put it, "there has probably never been a player who has scored from more rebounds." "It's goals like this that got him the record," added AS.
"Raul 307!" lauded the cover of AS. Marca, meanwhile, led on "Raúl = Di Stéfano." Which he doesn't, not exactly. After all, Di Stéfano changed Madrid's history: the blunt truth is that when he arrived in 1953, Madrid weren't up to much; when he left, they had won eight league titles and five European Cups. It has also taken Raúl 683 matches to reach the total that Di Stéfano reached in 396. But Raúl is the Champions League's all-time top scorer, has more Spain goals than anyone else, and 0.44 per game is still an exceptional return – an astonishing feat, whichever way you look at it. Besides, if Raúl has partly reached Di Stéfano's record because he has played so many more games – only 29 fewer than Manolo Sanchís, the club's current record holder – that too is an enormous achievement.
It might be easier to score goals at Real Madrid; but it certainly isn't easy to survive there. Presidents, managers and coaches have come and gone; Raúl has outlived them all. And that is the key: Raúl is a survivor. "Gripping his own faith like a shipwrecked man does a piece of driftwood," as El Mundo puts it. Committed and deeply serious, he is the last to leave training every day. His preparation is intense, even going so far as to sleep in an oxygen tent. He genuinely loves football, reeling off statistics and stories beyond most players.
Likeable when one-on-one, and quiet and respectful – he rarely goes for referees, is invariably lauded by opponents and has never been sent off – he has nonetheless also demonstrated the personality, willpower, strength of character, nastiness and sheer stubbornness that other, more talented players have lacked. Especially within his own dressing room. If Raúl has made a career from clever positioning on the pitch, he has made one from positioning off it too, reinforcing his status and seeking to control everything. Even signings. This is the man who ate with Juande Ramos three weeks before the former Spurs coach appeared at the Bernabéu and discouraged the club from signing David Villa in the summer.
None of which is necessarily a problem. After all, his approach to football is the right one and he deserves credit for the role he has played in pulling Madrid round. But Ronaldo could never understand Raúl's open animosity towards him, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Owen were marginalised and other players have felt the relationship with him cool as their profile has grown. It was the fact that Luis Aragonés saw in him a defiant challenge to his authority, as much as his by then recovering form, that saw him miss out on the European Championship. Raúl will go down in history as the greatest striker Madrid had, a man whose talent took him a long way and whose temperament took him even further. Not only has he grasped at that driftwood but, if needs be, he has pushed others off it too, his untouchable status helping him reach a record that will surely prove equally untouchable.
The Real Madrid captain seemed to be a spent force - but he has now equalled the club's goalscoring record
Some words are permanently embossed on the printing presses, from "Immigrants responsible for all evils of earth (especially collapsing house prices)", to "Diana: what really happened?", and the insistence on any Real Madrid-related deal being "real" when you don't even say it like that, for goodness sake! It's not just the English, either: in Spain, it's not all "Betis orgasm" and "The fu*k of the century". AS splashed on "galactic wedding" the day Florentino Pérez's daughter got married, "galactic dinner" when the squad ate out, and "galactic surplus" thanks to a healthy tax return, while try as they might – and they seem not to be trying at all – Sport and El Mundo Deportivo just can't help turning to their imaginative "Messi! Messi! Messi!".
But over the last few years one headline in particular just would not go away: "Raúl always returns." The Real Madrid striker could do nothing for months then one moment of inspiration and, Bob's your uncle (well he is mine), there it was: "Raúl always returns". Mostly, it was nonsense – unless by "always" they meant "every six months or so" and by "returns" they meant "scores a goal" – but it revealed the untouchable, venerated status to which he had been elevated and the desire to bring him back.
Raúl went four seasons without going past 11 league goals, three without getting into double figures. Stripped of the incontestable authority offered by his previously superb stats, his defenders zealously insisted on his work rate – even though one of his former coaches privately notes that it's often "counterproductive", motivated by the desire to be seen rather than really help. They invoked his leadership, too – even if one former team-mate describes that as "a myth". They jumped on those who dared suggest that, perhaps, maybe, you know, it might be an idea for him not to be in the team; those who said so were turned into pariahs, not just blokes who thought there might be better players around. One former footballer had to phone Marca and AS to plead with them not to reprint an interview in which he had been critical of the Real Madrid captain.
But despite the protection and the diversionary tactics, there was no escaping that Raúl's performances had dipped. Watching old matches laid bare the change – gone were the tiptoeing runs, the dashes to the near post, the impeccable first touch. He looked bigger, slower, more hunched. When, in the summer of 2006, it was privately suggested to one of his team-mates that Raúl hadn't played well for a few months, the barbed reply said it all: "A few years, more like".
You even wondered if it was all over. He might have been only 29 but he'd racked up more matches than many a 30-something footballer – more than David Beckham, then 31, and the 33-year-old Fabio Cannavaro. Psychologically, too, he had borne the burden of being Madrid's captain – a role he takes supremely, almost pathologically seriously – during three years of failure. His bitterness at the galácticos' subversion of seriousness and discipline was palpable. His own culpability as captain in a collapse marked by dreadful dressing-room relations, institutional instability and his own confrontation with Ronaldo meanwhile was often overlooked.
But Raúl survived the fallout – in fact, he emerged stronger. And, eventually, he actually did return – sort of, at least. Not as one of the world's best, as he might have claimed to be in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Not, despite his laughable nomination as Marca's player of the season for 2007-08, as one of Spain's very best. And not as a player good enough, in Luis Aragonés's opinion, to go to Euro 2008 – a competition that Spain won without him after years of him failing to make a real impact on a major tournament. But certainly as an effective footballer. In 2007-08 he scored 18 league goals, his best return in seven seasons, as Madrid won the league. And on Saturday night against Numancia he racked up his 15th for 2008-09, his ninth in the league, making him Real Madrid's top scorer this season.
But it wasn't that it was Raúl's 15th that mattered; that wasn't why the Pajaritos applauded him as he leapt into the sky and pointed at the name on the back of his shirt. It was that he had scored his 307th goal, making him Real Madrid's joint top scorer ever, drawing level with the man many Spaniards consider the greatest player of all time, Alfredo Di Stéfano.
It probably wasn't the way Raúl would have chosen to equal Di Stéfano. Numancia versus Real Madrid at the division's smallest ground wasn't the weekend's best game – Athletic's 3–2 win over Málaga was better, as was Valencia's 3–2 win against Almería, as, in fact, were almost all the weekend's matches. He didn't play well – in fact, he was awful. It wasn't the only historic moment – Leo Messi came from the bench to rescue Barcelona with another ludicrously good display, scoring the club's 5,000th goal. It didn't make him Spain's all-time top scorer – five men still stand above him. And it certainly wasn't the weekend's best goal – that was scored by Getafe's Ikechukwu Uche. Instead, it came courtesy of a poor shot, a worse save and an easy finish.
Yet wherever you look, it was still the goal they were all talking about, and an oddly appropriate way to reach the record. Never blessed with dazzling skills, Raúl has scored with some wonderful strikes but it's always been more about the effective than the aesthetic. As El País put it, "there has probably never been a player who has scored from more rebounds." "It's goals like this that got him the record," added AS.
"Raul 307!" lauded the cover of AS. Marca, meanwhile, led on "Raúl = Di Stéfano." Which he doesn't, not exactly. After all, Di Stéfano changed Madrid's history: the blunt truth is that when he arrived in 1953, Madrid weren't up to much; when he left, they had won eight league titles and five European Cups. It has also taken Raúl 683 matches to reach the total that Di Stéfano reached in 396. But Raúl is the Champions League's all-time top scorer, has more Spain goals than anyone else, and 0.44 per game is still an exceptional return – an astonishing feat, whichever way you look at it. Besides, if Raúl has partly reached Di Stéfano's record because he has played so many more games – only 29 fewer than Manolo Sanchís, the club's current record holder – that too is an enormous achievement.
It might be easier to score goals at Real Madrid; but it certainly isn't easy to survive there. Presidents, managers and coaches have come and gone; Raúl has outlived them all. And that is the key: Raúl is a survivor. "Gripping his own faith like a shipwrecked man does a piece of driftwood," as El Mundo puts it. Committed and deeply serious, he is the last to leave training every day. His preparation is intense, even going so far as to sleep in an oxygen tent. He genuinely loves football, reeling off statistics and stories beyond most players.
Likeable when one-on-one, and quiet and respectful – he rarely goes for referees, is invariably lauded by opponents and has never been sent off – he has nonetheless also demonstrated the personality, willpower, strength of character, nastiness and sheer stubbornness that other, more talented players have lacked. Especially within his own dressing room. If Raúl has made a career from clever positioning on the pitch, he has made one from positioning off it too, reinforcing his status and seeking to control everything. Even signings. This is the man who ate with Juande Ramos three weeks before the former Spurs coach appeared at the Bernabéu and discouraged the club from signing David Villa in the summer.
None of which is necessarily a problem. After all, his approach to football is the right one and he deserves credit for the role he has played in pulling Madrid round. But Ronaldo could never understand Raúl's open animosity towards him, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Owen were marginalised and other players have felt the relationship with him cool as their profile has grown. It was the fact that Luis Aragonés saw in him a defiant challenge to his authority, as much as his by then recovering form, that saw him miss out on the European Championship. Raúl will go down in history as the greatest striker Madrid had, a man whose talent took him a long way and whose temperament took him even further. Not only has he grasped at that driftwood but, if needs be, he has pushed others off it too, his untouchable status helping him reach a record that will surely prove equally untouchable.
