Raúl makes his Real Madrid debut at 17 and loses 3–2 at Zaragoza

Raúl began the 1994–95 season in Real Madrid's C team. He had grown up at Atlético Madrid and moved across the city after Jesús Gil closed Atlético's youth academy. By the end of October he was in Jorge Valdano's first team.

Valdano later explained that the decision was made in a friendly in Germany against Karlsruhe. "Cuando acabó aquel partido," he said in a Movistar+ documentary, "Raúl ya era el titular del siguiente que jugábamos en Zaragoza." When that game finished, Raúl was already in the side for the next one, at Zaragoza.

La Romareda

So on 29 October 1994, aged 17, Raúl started up front at La Romareda alongside Iván Zamorano. Alfonso was injured and the Quinta del Buitre years were ending. The man who lost out was Emilio Butragueño, by then a secondary figure under Valdano. The rest of the side was Buyo; Quique, Hierro, Sanchis, Luis Enrique; Míchel, Redondo, Michael Laudrup and Amavisca.

Zaragoza went ahead after seven minutes through Juan Esnáider, and Esnáider scored again after half-time to make it 2–0. Five minutes later Raúl found Zamorano with a pass and Zamorano pulled one back. José Emilio Amavisca equalised with 12 minutes to go. Then Gus Poyet won it for Zaragoza with a shot from outside the area four minutes from time.

Raúl played the full 90 minutes and did not score, though he had the chances to. The one people remember came when he took the ball round the goalkeeper, Andoni Cedrún, and put it over the bar.

The goalkeeper's view

Cedrún had also been in goal the day Butragueño made his debut, when Butragueño scored twice against Zaragoza. He remembered Raúl's afternoon 25 years later. "Vimos un tío con desparpajo que nos hizo un descosido," he said: we saw a cheeky lad who tore us apart. Of the moment he was rounded: "me rompió la columna. Era un jeta." He broke my back. He had some nerve. He and his team-mates, he said, came away thinking "aquí ha nacido una estrella": a star has been born here.

Jesús Alcaide, writing in El Mundo the next day, said Raúl, "sólo 17 años pero sobrado de talento", had shown a wide repertoire that would make him a star.

A week later

Madrid's next league game was the derby against Atlético at the Bernabéu on 5 November. Raúl won the penalty for the first goal, set up Zamorano for the second and scored the third himself in a 4–2 win. He finished the season with nine league goals in 28 appearances, and Real Madrid won the title.

He went on to play 741 official matches for the club, a record, and score 323 goals.