Balon D’or snub: Raul should be standing where Michael Owen was at Bernabeu on Saturday
Of course, Michael Owen was a fine player. Perhaps overhyped, as any English star typically is, but he was certainly great. The year he snagged Raul’s Balon D’or in 2001, Liverpool won a 'treble': League Cup, UEFA Cup, and FA Cup. Owen led the team with 24 goals (8 less than Raul), to three titles that didn’t include the Champions League or league title. In fact, Liverpool didn’t even play in the Champions League until the 2001-2002 season.
Raul had a long career when all was done and dusted. Not all of it was good, and not all of it was bad. Some of it was awkward, and some of it was heroic. If you were to zoom out and look at it linearly, it would be something like this: Raul breaks out onto the scene as a teenager after shattering goal-scoring records in the youth system, becomes deeply adored after Butragueno passes the torch to him, becomes virtually unplayable for about four seasons after, starts growing his hair in 2003 before suffering a dramatic, inexplicable, and sharp decline for about six years, then becomes a respectable contributor again later in his career.
Raul of 1999-2003 was something truly special. It was a travesty he didn’t win the Balon D’or in 2001 (his best shot at it). It was a season where Real Madrid won the league, Raul scored the most goals (besting Rivaldo for the Pichichi award for the 2nd time in three seasons), and also led the Champions League in scoring while being a huge part of Real Madrid’s run to the Champions League semi-final.
I actually tend to get emotional when I look back to the turn of the century. Those years in the Club’s history are pure nostalgic gold for me. Raul's intelligence on the pitch during his prime was on another plane, and particularly in that 2000-2001 season when Figo arrived, the chemistry between Raul and Luis was phenomenal. You could bank on that combination conjuring goals for you game-in game-out. So I'm going to be the grumpy old man here and point out that Raul should be standing where Owen was on Saturday.
