Oct 21, 2015 Real Madrid legend and New York Cosmos strike, Raul Gonzalez, recently announced his retirement at the end of the season.
Speaking during an interview, the Spaniard said:
“I’m here today to announce my retirement as a player at the end of the season. After some weeks of thinking about it, I think it’s the ideal time to retire after 21 years. In this season with the Cosmos where I’ve been very happy with the staff and where we still have opportunity in the next few games to win the championship.”
The 38 year old, who won a host of trophies with Real Madrid during his stellar career, pointed that he was taking a bow essentially to spend more time with his family.
“I have been in this thing a long time now with my family, I think now is the right moment, no, I’m not tried to play soccer or the trips but I think now I need to have more time with my family, with my kids, to be more time on the weekends at home to enjoy with my family and I’m happy, I feel healthy.”
Raul, whose goal scoring record at Real Madrid was recently broken by Cristiano Ronaldo, also reminisced about his debut with the Spanish outfit.
“I’ll always remember my debut with Real Madrid at 17 years of age. My dream as a child was to be a professional soccer player and when I played my first match wearing the Real Madrid jersey, I was the happiest kid, the happiest person in the world. especially seeing my parents, my siblings, my family my friends who had seen me my whole life since I was a child, playing with a ball.”