Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid used its social media account on X and official website to announce the exit of a club legend on Tuesday morning.
“Real Madrid C. F. announces that Raúl has informed the club of his decision to end his time as a coach in our youth academy,” the correspondence began.
"For Real Madrid it has been a pride to have as coach and trainer of our academy one of the greatest legends in our history and in world football.
“Raúl also represents, in an exemplary way, all the values of Real Madrid. Values that he has also transmitted as a coach: he coached the Cadet B and the Juvenil B in the 2018-2019 season. From then until today, he has been the coach of Castilla. In addition, in August 2020 he coached the Juvenil A, a team with which he was proclaimed champion of the Youth League,” Madrid’s continued noting.
Madrid said that Raul “will always be in the hearts of all Madridistas and Real Madrid will always be his home” and wished both its former player and now ex-coach, plus his family, “all the best in this new stage of his life".
Raul of course made his name at the Bernabeu in the 1990s, when he rose to its first team after graduating from La Fabrica to become one of its most legendary forwards and user of the number 7 shirt since donned by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Vinicius Jr.
The Spaniard left Madrid as a three-time Champions League winner in 2010, before retiring from the sport altogether and hanging up his boots five years later.
As mentioned by Madrid’s communicado, Raul began coaching in the 2018/2019 season and had been linked with a potential departure from Los Blancos for a while now.
Last term, he was rumoured to have received a number of offers from Germany, where he once played for Schalke 04, and there is a belief that he might now head into senior management.
A new era for Real Madrid
Raul’s exit is another indicatior that Real Madrid is heading into a new era after it yesterday welcomed Xabi Alonso as head coach. Simultaneously, Alonso’s predecessor Carlo Ancelotti was unveiled as the new leader of the Brazil national team.