Raul: The greatest scorer in the history of the Champions League hasn't been to Wembley... yet!
He wears it well - 33 years and 385 goals. Breezing around Schalke's slightly unconventional training complex, Raul Gonzalez doesn't look too many seasons beyond the 26th birthday he was approaching when he scored twice against Manchester United in 2003, and Sir Alex Ferguson called him the best in the world.
Destiny and no shortage of dogged determination on both sides brings them together again next week in a Champions League semi-final that also reunites Raul with Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs - two players whose raging against the dying of the light he has emulated, with the same unwavering professionalism and love of the game.
‘What we have in common is that we love this profession,' he says. ‘Football is our lives. They are great professionals who look after themselves and who train properly. For Giggs to still be playing at this level at 37 years of age is incredible.
‘He is still playing every three or four days and often in various positions - in midfield or out wide. He is still adding new things to his game and you can only admire that. Facing them again makes this match all the more special and I hope I can swap shirts at the end of the game with Ryan Giggs. It will be a great honour to have that shirt.'
The fact that Ferguson, Giggs and Scholes have soldiered on together at Old Trafford is remarkable; but that Raul has added five more goals to his Champions League tally this season, taking his record haul to 71, and that he finds himself two matches from the final with a team who are mid-table in the Bundesliga, is nothing short of astounding.
Ferguson, speaking after those two goals gave Real Madrid a 3-1 first-leg lead eight years ago, said: ‘Real buy these big players like Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo but I think the best player in the world is Raul.'
He probably never was football's No 1 but his expensive team-mates from that Galacticos side have since retired and Raul is still breaking records. Former Real Madrid winger Santiago Solari recently described him as ‘the best in everything, without being the best at anything'.
He shows completeness as a player, driven on by a mental strength that saw him survive 16 years at Real Madrid.
Raul says: ‘I know a lot of marathon runners who are at their best when they are close to 40. You say to yourself: "It's 42 kilometers and they are 37 or 38 years old", but the body can! What you have to make sure you don't lose is your head. That is the most important thing.
'I speak with a lot of players who have stopped playing and they go to the gym for two hours a day and say "now I run 10km a day". When they were still playing they would complain about running for 10 minutes!
'If you are lucky enough to avoid serious injuries then the body goes on; it's the mind that gives in. And it's the mind that you need to enable you to suffer pre-season every year. This one was tough but all that suffering has a huge reward.'
Raul also played against United in the quarter-finals in 2000, scoring two in the second-leg at Old Trafford in a 3-2 win after a 0-0 draw at the Bernabeu. He went on to win the final that year, scoring in a 3-0 victory over Valencia.
That United tie had been a daunting prospect, Real facing the previous season's Treble winners at Old Trafford with the mantra ‘I must not fear United' repeated several times over on the front page of one Madrid daily sports paper.
‘At that time they had an incredible team,' he recalls. ‘We did not have the greatest ever Real Madrid side but we did have a very united group of players and we gave everything for each other in every game. I remember we were winning 3-0 but they came back to 3-2 and we really suffered at the end to hold on.
‘Ferguson has always praised me and that means a lot because he is one of the greatest coaches in the history of football. It is very difficult to be in a big club for so many years - even with English football culture being more accustomed to longevity of coaches - and it strikes me as incredible that he goes on producing very competitive teams year after year.
‘Now they have a mix of great veterans like Giggs, Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and Edwin van der Sar but also with younger players like Nani and Wayne Rooney, who is one of the world's top strikers. They are not playing the kind of football that Barcelona play but they are always competitive and always fighting in finals and semi-finals for top honours. Every year it's the same story.'
There's a glint in the eye when he describes Old Trafford. ‘Here there will be a fantastic atmosphere, but there it is just spectacular,' he says.
So how close was he to moving to Manchester United at the end of last season?
‘There was a possibility and the only person who knows if it was a real possibility or not is Ferguson. It never went as far as me talking with him, but there was contact.'
The suggestion is that United's manager considered the move but harboured doubts that were not displayed by then-Schalke boss Felix Magath. And what Raul needed more than anything after a season out of favour at Real Madrid was a coach who would play him week-in, week-out.
‘The games are always special in England because of that atmosphere and I fancied it for that very reason,' he says. ‘I wanted to experience something new but in the end I found that something here.
‘This is also a very well organised league and the stadiums fill for all the games. We have 3,000-4,000 away fans that travel with us (something that is almost completely unknown in Spain) so we are never alone.'
What Raul has encountered at Schalke is so different to his 17-season stint at Madrid. Real's soulless, top-security Valdebebas training complex coldly plonked next to the airport is the refuge of players from autograph-hunting tourists, with stewards trying to protect the former from the latter.
It could not be further removed from Schalke's base built in the shadow of their new stadium and alongside their old ground. There are no hysterical screams as around 2,000 supporters watch an open training session and fans can then sit and have lunch in the same restaurant complex as the players.
‘I feel very at home here,' he says. ‘I feel part of the group and the fans have treated me with a lot of respect and affection. When I came to the club the people would stop me in the street and say "thank you, thank you for coming to this club; thank you for coming to play for Schalke". That is something new for me.
‘When Madrid win a game it is an obligation. Here it is not so much that every win is a party but people are grateful and they get behind you. It makes you a more rounded sportsman to have had that experience outside of a big club.
‘I am getting so much out of my time here - it's just a shame that you would need three or four lives to experience everything you want to in football - in England or in North America. It makes the life of a player richer when you throw yourself into these things.'
Raul's love for football has always gone hand-in-hand with his dislike for the commercial commitments that now come with the big-club territory. Much like Giggs and Scholes, he has for the most part shunned the showbiz lifestyle and he sees that decision as a key part of his longevity.
‘I respect the decisions other players make but my life has always been about playing and all the rest of it did not really interest me. I have done a few bits and pieces because you try things as a younger player, but then you come to realise that when you don't do those other things, you save your energy for what really counts and what you really love to do, which is playing. Then your career goes on that bit longer.'
Turning down non-football commitments was tough at Real Madrid, as during his time there the club became the biggest commercial entity in football.
‘I am more relaxed now,' he says. ‘At Real Madrid I had a lot of responsibilities. Now I don't have to worry about anything else. I have no commercial commitments I can concentrate on getting on with my team-mates, training and playing.'
Being at a club of Madrid's size was often a mental strain, even without pressure to travel round the world selling the club's image. Is the emotional burden on a player underestimated?
‘It depends on the club,' says Raul. ‘At clubs with constant media attention it is harder. You can see sometimes players who are 26 years old and they seem like they are already finished. Then you see them again when they are 30 in other circumstances and they seem better than ever.
He could easily be talking about himself when he adds: ‘It depends a lot on the faith the coach puts in you and whether you feel valued. There are players who are 35, 36, 37 and they are as fresh as kids. Everything I did at Madrid was good because it was for the club and I will always be a Madridista, but the moment came when the page was full and it had to be turned.'
Nothing would justify that decision to move on more than reaching the Champions League final.
‘What I came looking for here I found, but now I want to top that off with playing the final or at the very least playing two more massive games that are worthy of being Champions League semi-finals.
‘We can't ask for any more from this run but at the same time we are here now, and you never know how long you will have to wait to have this chance again, so we have to take it.'
Despite an illustrious international career that also saw him score 44 goals in 102 games for Spain he has never played at Wembley.
‘It has been a season of firsts so hopefully I will be able to play there. When you talk about great stadiums you think Maracana and Wembley,' he adds. ‘They are stadiums that have something special. There is a respect for history in English football and if I cannot play the final then I want to be there to watch Madrid play it as a fan.'
The prospect of both those things happening - Raul reaching Wembley and finding the club of his life waiting for him as opponents, is almost too much.
‘I cannot even find the words to describe what it would be like to play Madrid in the final,' he says struggling to decide if it would be the worst or best thing that could possibly happen to him as a player. ‘I will only think about it if we get past these two games against United.
‘It would be special; it would be more than special. But it would be very difficult too. If it's to win the final then let it be against Barcelona. And if it's to lose then let it be against Madrid. Let's see what destiny brings.'
You're some idiot Boss.
change the record lad.