Raúl scored a penalty goal against Espanyol for what is 200 La Liga goals joining an elite group of players who have scored 200 and more, including former Real Madrid stars Hugo Sánchez and Alfredo Di Stéfano.

The “king of Spain”, as I like to call him, is the fifth highest scorer in La Liga history and he needs 52 more goals to be the all-time top scorer.

Whether he would ever achieve this honor is debatable as he is now 30 years old and not getting any better. Some would say he’s back to his prime because he’s having a good season, but if truth be told he’s peaked and right now he’s just the best he can be, he’s not back to his best.

He’s had 3 wasted years where I feel he would have easily been the top scorer in the league right now if it wasn’t for that period. His problems seem to stem from the obsession that the presidents of Real Madrid had with the so-called galactic. Term used to describe soccer players of immense popularity and marketing ability.

This was fine with the acquisitions of Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane as they always played the ball on the ground and relied more on skill than pace, which was fine with Raúl.

By the time Ronaldo and then David Beckham were bought, Real’s style of play changed with Beckham always looking for long, accurate clearances that suited the more athletic and quicker Ronaldo than Raúl. Raúl found himself part of a gear to feed Ronaldo instead of a system that suited his style of play. It was alleged that he fell in love with the game and that damaged knee ligaments did not help his state of mind either. Overall it was a bad time in Madrid with reports of 2 camps. Raúl, Guti, Michel Salgado and others said they were in number 1 and Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Robinho and others said they were in the other although Carlos was kinder to Raúl’s field than Ronaldo.

The arrival of Fabio Capello and the subsequent departure of Ronaldo helped ease the tension at Real Madrid on the part of Raúl, who seemed to regain his appetite for the game.

It is no coincidence that this season with Raúl playing where he likes and mainly supporting Ruud Van Nistlerooy, his goal production has improved again because last season with Fabio Capello, despite his improved fitness, he played away from the opposing goal. . either in midfield or on the wings.

It has been said in the past and even Guillem Ballague, Spanish football expert for Sky Sports, stated that Raúl is a player who is not a perfect 10 in any capacity, as he felt that Raúl could not dribble, did not possess great pace or he could use his right foot.

I’ve heard all this against Raúl before that he didn’t excel in any particular attribute, but I don’t agree. In his prime and that was before Alex Ferguson ruined his career by labeling him the best player in the world after he wrecked Manchester United; he was the smartest striker in the world, as he seemed to have a computer for a brain.

He knew instinctively when to kick a goalkeeper or when to round him off and he really should have won European Footballer of the Year award countless times. After all, if Michael Owen can receive such an award, Raúl should too.

He may not have been hurt with breakneck pace and frankly I don’t understand some people’s obsession with fast players, but he was a great player when he was in his prime. He could dribble past opponents on a 1-1 basis as much as any striker and his first touch was better than any striker except Juventus’ Alessandro Del Piero.

Maybe he couldn’t get past 3 or 4 opponents and unlike players like Thierry Henry he couldn’t take advantage of the space given to him due to his lack of blazing speed, but unlike Henry he was able to take advantage of a modicum of space that it was offered to him, since he could convert it into sixpence. and make something happen out of nothing.

He is the top scorer in the history of the Champions League with 61 goals and the top scorer for his country with 44 goals in 102 games. He is highly respected in Spain and I suppose by the entire football community as one of the best, if not the best, Spanish player of all time.