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Raúl, rivalry, and mutual respect

Update:

Raúl commented in an interview with Vanity Fair that every time Barcelona have won the Champions League it's made him happy. That admission may be a shock to many in these turbulent times in our country, turbulence that manifests itself in our football, but in my opinion it was a perfectly healthy thing to say, more so that he said it with sincerity. He’s been closer to Barça than any other European team, perhaps apart from Schalke, which isn’t a club of quite the same high-standing. He’s shared dressing-rooms while playing for Spain with Puyol, Xavi and many others, Barça is close to him, the way Atlético Madrid are.

“I’ve walked through Barcelona with Mamen a thousand times and the people have always treated us marvellously well”, he also said. A year ago Puyol was at the AS Gala, where he received an award recognising his outstanding career, and he spoke to me about Raúl with remarkable respect, holding him in the same high regard as he does Guardiola, the same respect and high regard that Raúl returns when he speaks about them. Football provokes rivalries in the immediate, short-term passions that inspire fun, healthy competition and the desire to win and perform, but all within the spirit of sportsmanship and recognition of the other.

One day Raúl made that famous gesture silencing the Camp Nou after scoring a goal. Some time later he declared that he wouldn’t do it again. I liked that, just as I’ve always enjoyed the manner he lived that fierce rivalry between Puyol, Casillas, Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Ramos, or before them Asensi, Velázquez, Rexach and Pirri. In the same way that Mourinho was too much for me, some of the current set-up are not fit for Madrid, but I’m not going to name names and ruffle feathers. Football is ‘bonito’, the Madrid-Barça rivalry is the best the game has ever had and so much better off when the respect is mutual.