full credit from this site : http://footballspeak.com/post/2011/10/15/Raul-Gonzalez-Blanco-How-He-Made-Me-Love-Football-.aspx
Well, baca artikel ini bener-bener terhenyuk dan merasa kalo isi artikel ini juga mirip dengan latar belakang dan sejarah saya suka klub Real Madrid dan Raul Gonzalez ckckck
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It all seems like yesterday.
June 2nd, 2002. A kid, merely 10 yrs old, sat in front of the TV, watching the World Cup group stage match between Spain and Slovenia in his neighbour’s home. Beside him was a 13 years old friend – and the one whose house he was in.
Suddenly, the 10 year old kid pointed at the TV and shouted, “Hey! I saw this guy somewhere before! Who is he?”. The older kid smiled and said, “He is Raul. You saw him only days back on the TV”. He was referring to the 2001-2002 Champions League Final when he said ‘days back’ (coincidentally, both of them watched that match together, too).
“I think he [Raul] is the greatest player to have ever played the game. He walks on the turf and astounds. It is utterly amazing.” – Luis Figo.
hen Raul scored. The broad smile on the innocent face of the 10 year old kid was priceless. It was as if he knew Raul for a long time and has been a big fan of him, which he didn’t and wasn’t. But from that point onwards, the 10 year old kid became a huge fan of Raul. And because of Raul, he became a big fan of Spain, Real Madrid and Football from that point.
That 10 year old kid was none other than this writer – me.
Now let us go back to October 29th 1994. A 17 year old Raul subs in for Emilio Butregueno – another Club legend – and puts up a splendid performance on his debut, creating a goal for Ivan Zamorano. The very next week in his home debut, Raul scored his first ever goal for Real Madrid against Atletico Madrid – which was also his youth Club.
I was not fortunate enough to watch his first ever goal for Real Madrid live as I was exactly 2 years and 2 months old at that time and didn’t even know what Football was. Raul went on to have a stellar career since then, winning 3 Champions Leagues and 6 La Ligas with Real Madrid. His leadership, work ethic, unmatched determination, charisma, calmness, composure, finishing, sportsmanship and almost everything made me, and many people around the World, a huge fan of his.
Real [Madrid] buy these big players like Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo but I think the best player in the world is Raúl.” – Sir Alex Ferguson.
Even now, at the age of 34, he continuously keeps running for 90 minutes – and scoring, too. But what hurts me a lot is that he never won anything with the Spanish National team.
When Spain were knocked out of the 2002 FIFA World Cup by South Korea, I thought to myself, “will I ever see Spain win the World Cup?” – I did. I did see Spain win the World Cup 2010 and Euro 2008. But deep down, I was gutted. Gutted because Raul wasn’t in the Spain squad in any of those 2 tournaments – and perhaps he will never be. Perhaps it was not in his fate to win anything with the national team – his peak not coinciding with the Golden Generation of Spain’s Football makes that point stronger.
But the worst and the most painful day, however, was June 25th 2010. That was the day when I and many Madridistas cried our eyes out. That was the day when our captain left Real Madrid to join Schalke 04.
That was the day when the commentator’s prediction came true, the commentator of the match between Zaragoza v Real Madrid on April 24th 2010 – which was Raul’s last match as a Real Madrid player. When Raul scored in that game, the commentator said that this might be Raul’s last goal as a Real Madrid player. He was right; that was Raul’s last goal as a Real Madrid player. Raul, who was going to be substituted by Karim Benzema, jogged into the box and poked a Cristiano Ronaldo pass into the net, And I was lucky, and honoured, to see that goal live.
It was hard. Hard to see Real Madrid without its symbol. Hard to see Real Madrid without its son. Hard to see someone else’s name on the number 7 shirt. Hard to know that Raul will not be retiring from his playing career at Real Madrid.
But now, we have to see it all.
Raul may have left Real Madrid, but his memories will stay with me till I die. 16 years at Real Madrid … so many memories, so many moments of glory, so many moments of joy. Looking back at his career, I feel very sad that those moments have passed away and we will never get them back again. He graced the Bernabeu and the Footballing World with his charisma. There won’t be another Raul.
His first goal, signaling the Camp Now crowd to keep quiet, his goals in the Champions league final against Valencia and Leverkusen, his goals in Clasicos,
celebrating his goal by kissing the right ring finger, breaking Alfredo di Stefano’s record to become Real’s highest goal-scorer, his last goal for Real Madrid … the memory remains. A lot of people have many wishes, I have some, too. And one of them is to meet Raul. If that wish comes true, my life would be honoured and I could die in peace and without any regrets.
Viva Raul!
randyaria notes 