The Return Of The King

The world kept on admiring, predicting, fantasizing generations after generations but dreams just kept fading away. Eventually after decades of being great underachievers, a mixture of youth and experience pulled it off in a spectacular fashion.

It was not until June 29 that Spain waited to win their second major trophy in 44 years, having hosted and won the UEFA championship in 1964, Spain’s trophy cabinet had suffered years of droughts and disappointments in major championships, and it was only until Euro 2008 that the country showed characters and broke the jinx they couldn't find for years.

As a country and home to two famous and indisputable highly decorated clubs in the history of the game, with Real Madrid a FIFA world club of the century from Madrid and club football Barcelona from the city of Barcelona. The Spanish first division have been rated the best in recent years, attracting football talents from around the world.

It is not only the two clubs that have managed to entertain with foreigners dominating though, but the country have also managed to produce some of the best talents and wonderful footballers of recent years thanks to the phenomenal work of clubs football academies around the country.

With fine talents at their disposal, Spain have been failing to put together a team to produce and bid for glories acquiring and notoriously being dubbed as the greatest underachievers of recent years on the international scene, failing to live up to expectations and be present when it matters most. In another bout of many a disappointing display at the world cup 1994 in USA and a bloody exit that left their star striker Luis Enrique with a broken nose the country looked and waited no further but to introduce the player many Spaniards believed will change Spanish football forever.

The boy’s name was Raul Conzales Branco a star player with Real Madrid and one of the most prolific goal scorers in Spanish first division La Liga as it is famously known as well as in Europe. With high hope, promises with good work under national coach at the time Senor Javier Clemente, Spain arrived in France 1998 FIFA world cup undoubtedly as one of the favourite nations despite having recently disappointed at Euro 1996 in England.

Making his debut Raul was one of the most spoken about prospects in the Spanish squad and Spain’s group d, the group of death presented just a perfect test with Nigeria, Paraguay and Bulgaria all ready to stop him. Again Spain failed to make it out of the group stage and another disappointment from Spain and a tearful end to the tournament by a young Raul.

The following years saw good improvements  marked by misfortunes of penalties misses as Raul lead the ship as a captain and a main striker having taken over from Fernando Hierro who retired in 2002.

His distinguishable achievements for both club and country speak volumes of the man always dedicated and committed to deliver the best. In a national jersey Raul has been scoring goal after goal thus becoming the highest and all time leading goal scorer with 44 goals in the history of the Spanish national team and holds a record for the all-time leading scorer in the Uefa Champions League history with 61 goals.

As a captain of both ships Real Madrid and Spain, Raul is known as the king of Spain and his famous number seven is one of the untouchables at Real Madrid and look to own it for life at the club he is set to stay for the rest of his career.

After sacking Vicente Del Bosque in 2003 Real Madrid went through a spell of trophyless seasons changing managers six times in three years and even Fabio Capello’s contract could not be honoured after bringing back the glory days in 2007.

Injuries and poor form at club level alerted Luis Argones at the helm as the manager of the national team to make drastic brave changes, and that means Raul found himself relegated to the bench and ultimately dropped as the likes of Fernando Torres and David Villa took centre stage and lead the front.

Aragones could only tell that Raul will be called up in the future to the surprise of the nation, team-mates who have been calling for the return of the king. Instrumental in the club’s 30 and most recently 31st championships title Raul could not make the squad for Euro 2008 as the coach kept faith in Fernando Torres and David villa and newly raising stars such as David Guiza and David Silva.

Having justified his selection and omission by delivering the most awaited silverware in the history of Spanish football, Luis Argones has left pride and joy for Turkey to coach Fenerbache football club and the future looks brighter for Spain.

Vicente Del Bosque one of the most successful coaches in Europe who likes attacking football, is an old pal with Raul going back at Real Madrid where the striker shone and delivered under his reign.

Players are selected on merit, performances not on reputations and every coach is responsible for their own decisions. Whether Raul’s chances to return are high, it is no secrete, but whether the arrival of Vicente Del Bosque provides a definite answer. We wait and see.