When you hear the name Raul, you probably think of the former Real Madrid forward’s legendary 16-year playing career at the club.
Raul scored 323 goals in 741 appearances for Madrid after joining the academy from rivals Atletico in 1994 and becoming captain. Only Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema have more goals in the club’s history and no one has played more.
You probably don’t think about Coach Raul.
After retiring in 2015, the Spaniard joined Madrid’s youth system and has managed their B team, Real Madrid Castilla, for the past five years. There have been regular links with the main job at the Santiago Bernabeu and with his other former club Schalke in Germany, among others – but nothing has materialized so far.
So, how is 47-year-old Raul as a manager and what does his future hold?
Why is Raul such a big deal at Real Madrid?
Raul remains one of the most important players in Madrid’s history. His goalscoring and longevity speak for themselves, with him winning three Champions League titles and six La Liga titles during his time at the Bernabeu.
He was the youngest player ever to be captained at 27 and is still regarded as someone who always represented the club on the pitch. “If, one day, there is a (football war), Raul will carry the flag of Madrid,” former player, coach, sporting director and current figurehead Jorge Valdano told the La Galerna website in 2021.

Raul became a legend at Madrid (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
Raul joined Schalke in 2010 at the age of 33 after a season in which he lost his starting place to Cristiano Ronaldo and his relationship with club president Florentino Perez has been through ups and downs. He moved to Qatari side Al Sadd in 2012 and spent two years there before hanging up his boots in the US second division with the New York Cosmos.
Despite that, he remains an incredibly important figure in Madrid consciousness and is rumored to have a lifetime deal as the club’s ambassador.
How is his relationship with Perez?
Raul was a great presence as a player at Madrid, so perhaps it’s no surprise that he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Perez.

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Perez has spent two terms as president of the club, from 2000-2006 and now since 2009. In 2021, Spanish newspaper El Confidencial published leaked conversations from Perez in which he appeared to blame Raul as one of those responsible for his resignation in February 2006, when the Madrid team was without much silverware for the third season in a row.
“When he thinks he’s done, he says, ‘Before I’m done, I’m going to finish Madrid,'” Perez can be heard saying. “He is a negative guy, he is destroying Madrid, the morale of the players. So they say: ‘Madrid are bad, not Raul’. It’s terrible how bad this guy is.”
In a club statement responding to the publication, Perez said: “These are loose sentences from conversations taken out of the wider context in which they occur.”
In 2017, Raul told Panenka magazine that his departure from Madrid “could have been better” but “it happened that way and time puts everything in its place”. He finally received a testimonial in Madrid in 2013, which suggested that differences had been put aside.
There was some talk in 2015 of a possible joint bid for the presidency with club legends Fernando Hierro and Manolo Sanchis, but it didn’t go any further. The club tried to convince Raul to rejoin sports, but it was only in 2018 that he agreed to return as the academy coach, once tensions with Perez had eased.
Has he done well at Castilla?
Raul made a successful start to life as Castilla coach, winning the club’s first UEFA Youth League title – the under-19 equivalent of the Champions League – in his pandemic-hit first season.
His team also came close to promotion to the 2022-23 Spanish Second Division, beating Barcelona Atletic (formerly Barca B) in the play-off semi-finals before losing the final to Valencia side Eldense. Castilla remain in the regional third tier, the Primera Federacion, where they are currently third bottom in the 20-team league.
Raul wants his teams to dominate and is very hands-on with his players, obsessing over details and regularly correcting them during matches. Sources close to some of the players – who, like all those quoted in this article, asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships – describe him as “strict”. It has not always worked in more difficult cases such as Iker Bravo, a striker who spent two years with Castilla but left for Udinese in Italy this summer.

Former striker Raul is kind to his players (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Raul’s main job is to provide the first team in Madrid with promising players – and he has failed to do so. While he and veteran Carlo Ancelotti have an excellent relationship and there is fluid communication between the coaching staff, only left-back Fran Garcia has established himself in the first team after stepping up. Even then, he had to spend three years at Rayo Vallecano first before Madrid bought him back last year.
There are two other clear examples of talented players who have worked under Raul but had to look elsewhere for senior opportunities. Sergio Arribas played just 28 minutes in 2022-23 before being sold to Almeria for €8m (£6.7m/£8.8m at current exchange rates), while Nico Paz left for Italian side Como for €6m euros this summer, after only 128 minutes with the team. first team.
That’s mainly because of Ancelotti’s reluctance to use young players — Athletic has regularly reported on the ‘Via Carvajal’, where academy graduates seek opportunities elsewhere, before returning to Madrid as part of the first team squad. Some players have not been happy with their development under Raul, although those who have excelled in his Castilla sides are understandably happy with his style.

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Why is he always being linked to Schalke?
Despite only playing in Germany in the twilight of his career, Raul also became a legend there.
He helped Schalke win the DFB-Pokal, the German version of the FA Cup and the Copa del Rey, in his first season and in the first Champions League semi-final with five goals in the competition – scoring a vital winner against Inter Milan in the game. quarter finals. Fans adored him and called him “Senor Raul”. After winning the German Super Cup, scoring 21 goals and providing 11 assists in his second season in Gelsenkirchen, Schalke fans sent him an emotional send-off to Qatar.
Schalke have struggled in recent years and this is their second season in a row in the 2. Bundesliga, Germany’s second division. Raul has been linked with a return to the German team several times since becoming coach.

Schalke fans bid farewell to Raul in 2012 (Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images)
A senior source at Schalke said Athletic they understood why that was the case and did not rule him out as a future target, but they strongly denied they were looking for his appointment now, as the Spaniard would not be leaving Castilla in mid-season. Raul’s camp are aware of reports linking him with a move to Schalke last year but have downplayed them.
Raul has previously been approached by clubs including England’s Leeds United and fellow German side Eintracht Frankfurt, but neither convinced him due to timing – both in risky league positions and offering no guarantee of a long-term project.
The only real possibility of Raul’s departure came at the start of last season, when he held talks with La Liga side Villarreal. However, nothing happened to them, and they appointed Pacheta instead.
Could he be the future manager of Madrid?
Raul still has his supporters at the club and some voices continue to name him on the list of possible future managers (although the favorite to take over at some point is Xabi Alonso, the former Madrid midfielder who won the German title last season with Bayer Leverkusen.
But the reality is that as long as Perez is president, it’s hard to see Raul being hired.
One source close to him explains that he is still “obsessed” with Madrid. Another point is that the easiest way for him to become a head coach is to stay at Castilla and wait for his chance.
What everyone Athletic The consensus is that he is in no rush to leave his current position despite having been there for the past five years. They cite as examples former Madrid youth coaches such as Luis Molowny and Vicente del Bosque, who spent many years in the club’s youth system and stepped up when needed, with good results.
But times have changed.
Other former players such as Santiago Solari (football manager) and Alvaro Arbeloa (under-19 coach) are still at the club and could make the jump. That’s without mentioning Zinedine Zidane, who has been sidelined since completing two trophy-laden spells in charge of Madrid in the summer of 2021, and Davide Ancelotti, Carlo’s son and senior assistant, who is aiming to become head coach.
(Top photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
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