About Raul Gonzalez Raúl González Blanco (born June 27, 1977 in Madrid, Spain), usually known simply as Raúl, is a Spanish football forward who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid. He is a three-time winner of the UEFA Champions League and is currently the competition's all-time leading goal scorer with 64 goals. In addition to that, Raúl is also the current leading scorer of the Spanish National Team with 44 goals.Raúl ironically began his career with cross-town rivals Atletico Madrid, the club his father supported. After then chairman, Jesús Gil, decided to close down the youth set-up, and the striker moved to the Real youth academy. Widely seen as one of the best forwards of all time, Raúl has spent his entire club career with Madrid, with whom he has won six Spanish league titles. He began the 1994-95 season in Madrid's C-team, but after a flurry of sixteen goals in seven games, he was promoted to first team status by coach Jorge Valdano. He became the youngest player (seventeen years and four months) ever to play for the senior side, scoring in his second senior game against Atletico Madrid. In all, Raúl registered nine goals in 28 appearances to help Real Madrid win the 1994-95 league championship in his first season. Over the next eight seasons, he won several honours, including another three La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues. For most of this time, Raúl struck up a prolific scoring partnership with Fernando Morientes (and later, Ronaldo). Raúl took over the captaincy of Real Madrid when Fernando Hierro departed in 2003, a responsibility he holds to this day. Unusually for such a successful and long-serving player, and despite appearing in two finals, 2002 (in which he scored) and 2004, Raúl has never won the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup). He became the first player to score fifty Champions League goals when he netted in a 2-1 group stage win over Olympiacos on 28 September 2005, and continues to be the all-time leader in both Champions League goals (64) and appearances (123). He was also the first player to score in two Champions League finals, netting in the finals of both 2000 vs. Valencia in Paris, and 2002 vs. Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow. Samuel Eto'o later accomplished this feat, scoring in the 2006 final against Arsenal and in 2009 against Manchester United. Raúl holds the distinction of having never received a red card throughout his 14 years at the professional level. Earlier this season, on 11 November 2008, Raúl scored his 270th goal for Real Madrid with a hat-trick against Real Union, with Real winning the game 4-3 but being eliminated on away goals after drawing 6-6 on aggregate. He has scored 270 career goals for Real Madrid, breaking the long-standing club record of Alfredo di Stéfano with a volleyed goal vs. Sporting Gijon on 15 February 2009. He is also the top active La Liga goalscorer with 223 of his 270 goals scored in La Liga matches, and is presently 5th on the all-time list, which is headed by Telmo Zarra with 251 goals. Raúl holds the record of all-time top La Liga scorer for Real Madrid with 223, a record previously held by Alfredo di Stéfano who scored 216 out of an overall La Liga tally of 227 in a Real Madrid shirt, for whom he played between 1953 and 1964. On 14 February 2009, Raúl and fellow long-serving teammate Iker Casillas were both awarded a 'contract for life' in 2008 - the terms of which stipulat