ONE of Spain's most prolific goalscorer, the man who is also affectionately known as El Angel de Madrid, Raúl González... a few days ago, Spanish football was rocked by the news that Raúl has been left out of the national squad for the EURO 2008.
The man behind this decision...Luis Aragones. While Aragones has been in charged, Raúl has been left out of the national squad on numerous occasions. This sparked rumours that with Aragones in charge, Raúl will never get to feature for Spain again.
Raúl is perhaps one of Spain's most decorated footballer, apart from the great Alfredo Di Stefano, and his exclusion will definitely be under scrutiny should Spain fail to deliver the goods in EURO 2008. Taking a lookback at his well-illustrated career, Raúl has not failed to break most of Spain's footballing records.
Raúl has been made team captain for his club Real Madrid since 2003, scoring 205 goals in 483 games. Even though that record only means that Raúl is the club's 2nd top goalscorer, he is still the only man with the most goals in the UEFA Champions League with 61 goals. His records do not stop there. Raúl is also Spain's top scorer with 44 goals and has accumulated a total of 102 appearances for his national team.
Raúl is definitely Spain's golden boy and while his exclusion has already raised certain eyebrows across the world, what does this all mean?
At the age of 30, Raúl is arguably at the prime of his career. A few injuries have kept him off the field most of the time throughout 2006, but he came back storming in 2008, amassing 37 appearances in La Liga and scoring an incredible 18 times. His return in form has greatly assisted Real Madrid in retaining the La Liga title in 2008 and it is a terrible shame that his goalscoring accolades have failed to earn him a place in Spain for EURO 2008.
In his place comes the 2 dark horses, Sergio Garcia from Real Zaragoza and Daniel Guiza from Real Mallorca.
Sergio Garcia is the only player in the national squad whose club team was relegated to the Secunda Division. A surprising call by Aragones, however Garcia's versatility in his style of play is the only highlight for Real Zaragoza.
Daniel Guiza is not only a debutant in his first major tournament for Spain, he is also La Liga's top goalscorer in 2008 with 26 goals in the whole season. Of these 26 goals for Mallorca, 19 of them came away from home and that is a new league record by the way.
Fortunately for Spain, Raúl's exclusion has injected new blood into what already seems like a world-class strikeforce. With David Villa and Fernando Torres expected to spearhead the Spanish team anyway, one must start to question if including Raúl will have benefited Spain in any way. That can only be answered after EURO 2008, as Spain continues to be branded as a top class footballing nation and yet to win a major tournament since 1964 when they were champions of Europe then.
Raúl González, as the footballing celebrity's career closes yet another chapter in his books, will only have to look forward to the World Cup in 2010. How that chapter will be written, we can only wait and see...
The man behind this decision...Luis Aragones. While Aragones has been in charged, Raúl has been left out of the national squad on numerous occasions. This sparked rumours that with Aragones in charge, Raúl will never get to feature for Spain again.
Raúl is perhaps one of Spain's most decorated footballer, apart from the great Alfredo Di Stefano, and his exclusion will definitely be under scrutiny should Spain fail to deliver the goods in EURO 2008. Taking a lookback at his well-illustrated career, Raúl has not failed to break most of Spain's footballing records.
Raúl has been made team captain for his club Real Madrid since 2003, scoring 205 goals in 483 games. Even though that record only means that Raúl is the club's 2nd top goalscorer, he is still the only man with the most goals in the UEFA Champions League with 61 goals. His records do not stop there. Raúl is also Spain's top scorer with 44 goals and has accumulated a total of 102 appearances for his national team.
Raúl is definitely Spain's golden boy and while his exclusion has already raised certain eyebrows across the world, what does this all mean?
At the age of 30, Raúl is arguably at the prime of his career. A few injuries have kept him off the field most of the time throughout 2006, but he came back storming in 2008, amassing 37 appearances in La Liga and scoring an incredible 18 times. His return in form has greatly assisted Real Madrid in retaining the La Liga title in 2008 and it is a terrible shame that his goalscoring accolades have failed to earn him a place in Spain for EURO 2008.
In his place comes the 2 dark horses, Sergio Garcia from Real Zaragoza and Daniel Guiza from Real Mallorca.
Sergio Garcia is the only player in the national squad whose club team was relegated to the Secunda Division. A surprising call by Aragones, however Garcia's versatility in his style of play is the only highlight for Real Zaragoza.
Daniel Guiza is not only a debutant in his first major tournament for Spain, he is also La Liga's top goalscorer in 2008 with 26 goals in the whole season. Of these 26 goals for Mallorca, 19 of them came away from home and that is a new league record by the way.
Fortunately for Spain, Raúl's exclusion has injected new blood into what already seems like a world-class strikeforce. With David Villa and Fernando Torres expected to spearhead the Spanish team anyway, one must start to question if including Raúl will have benefited Spain in any way. That can only be answered after EURO 2008, as Spain continues to be branded as a top class footballing nation and yet to win a major tournament since 1964 when they were champions of Europe then.
Raúl González, as the footballing celebrity's career closes yet another chapter in his books, will only have to look forward to the World Cup in 2010. How that chapter will be written, we can only wait and see...
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