Raul Gonzalez Blanco was born in Madrid, Spain and is a Spanish professional football forward. He has been playing for Read Madrid at the senior level since 1994 and has been the team captain since 2003. He was also a member of the Spanish national team and is its all-time leading 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 Read Madrid, Raul has won the UEFA Champions League three times and is the all-time leading scorer of that competition with 61 goals. He is currently the seventh highest scorer in the history of Spain’s top flight with 205 goals in 483 games. All of these goals were with Read Madrid, making him the club’s second highest goal scorer of all time.
Raul is also called The Seven, Madrid’s Angel and The Captain by fans and pundits. When playing, he wears the number 7 jersey for both club and country. 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 in his last year of a contract. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest Spanish footballers of all time.
