The End of an Era

// July 26th, 2010 // Uncategorized

These are bittersweet times for the Madridistas among us. With Mourinho, things are looking up. We’re all hoping we’ll actually be able to beat Barca in our own stadium, or at least get past the round of 16 in the Champions League. But before we look too far ahead, it’s time to pour some on the floor for the brothers who ain’t here. Guti and Raul are (finally) leaving the club.

Good Times

I know many of you probably hate these guys. Real Madrid is not the most beloved club on the planet, and these guys have been symbols of the Evil Empire for over a decade. But with over 1200 games, 30 seasons, and many titles between them, it’s worth pausing to reflect on their contributions, especially Guti’s.

No one will argue that Raul has been the more successful of the two, but I’m sure I’m not the only Madrid fan who will miss Guti quite a bit more. The fact that politics kept Raul in the lineup much longer than his talent should have, that he kept choking with the national team, and that he starting pointing to his own name on the back of his jersey after scoring kind of ruined it for me. Don’t tell my pops, but Iniesta has moved ahead of Raul in my personal heroes ranking (My dad is so Madrid that he only reluctantly admits that Iniesta is “decent”, and thinks Iker was Spain’s tournament MVP this summer.)

Ah, but Guti. He may be a total prick, but what a stylish ballplayer. Is there anything more beautiful in football than the long through ball on the ground? Guti had it down. The little reverse pass to the right while looking left? Nobody did it better. And all of it done with an aloof and unhurried style. Every time they fired a coach, the new guy would send Guti to the bench, but it was never long before he re-emerged. Yeah, he didn’t tackle, or run very much, or play where his manager wanted, but it didn’t matter. The team always played better with him spraying passes around. Well, at least they attacked better.

Here’s a little compilation of Guti’s passes over the years that captures his essence as a footballer. That back heel to Zidane at 0:24 is just bananas.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that he was the last of the canteranos in the team, aside from Iker. While Barca continues to fill their first team with products from La Masia, Guti is the last outfield player from the youth team to make a lasting contribution at Madrid, and his debut was 15 years ago.

Not sure where he’s going just yet, whether it be Dubai, Besiktas, or maybe he’ll just devote himself to club-hopping full time. Whatever it is: Adios amigo, que te vaya bien…

Posted by Alain

One Response to “The End of an Era”

  1. Lazar says:
    July 28, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    As much as I hate Madrid, I always enjoyed Guti and the first 6-7 years of Raul. I was living in Madrid in 1994 when I first saw both players. I watched Raul’s coming out party against Atletico, where he scored the great first-time curler off the pass from Laudrup in what was I think his second or third game.

    A few weeks later, the great Fernando Redondo did an interview on TeleMadrid’s Futbol es Futbol, when the show host brought out a 15 year old Guti, then playing for Real Madrid “D” (their fourth team) who had his hair cut exactly like Redondo. The host clearly wanted to show that Guti admired Redondo, but when they asked Guti, he refused to play along and said it was a coincidence. Guti was never one to make nice.

    Reply

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