After spending almost two decades with the Spanish giants Real Madrid, Raul has finally decided to part with the club. Raul has played a major role in Real Madrid’s success over the years in both the La Liga and the Champions league. The Spanish striker has represented Real Madrid 741 times, scoring 323 goals and has bagged the national cap 102 times, where he scored 44 goals.

Raul joined Real Madrid in 1992 and debuted against Real Zaragoza in 1994. He helped Real Madrid to achieve 6 Spanish league titles and three Champions League titles. The 33 year old Spaniard had earlier hinted that he might move to England but has finally decided to join Schalke, the German first division side. His decision to move from the club where he has played all his professional football wasn’t much of a surprise, as of late he had very rarely featured in the playing eleven.

Raul has been touted by many as one of the greatest players to ever play for Spain as well as Real Madrid. He has been an exemplary striker and his record says it all. His decision was primarily based on the fact that it was about time he gave way to younger talent and has repeatedly said that Real Madrid is his home.

On the other hand the German club is more than elated to have this great player in its rank. They hope that he helps them win the German title this season. Schalke finished second last season.

In a record breaking performance, Barcelona has once again been crowned as the La Liga champions of Spain. They edged their ace rivals Real Madrid to win the Spanish league by beating Valladolid 4-0 during their last match of the season. Barcelona recorded 99 points during the season and this is an all time record. Putting behind their Champions league failure they showed tremendous character to win the league title.

It was a very closely fought season with Real Madrid matching them with some impressive performances. But eventually, Barcelona managed to clinch the title with some disciplined and clinical performances. The cash rich Real Madrid failed to win a single major title for the second consecutive season and it was huge disappointment for their fans.

Real Madrid had spent almost $250 million this season in acquiring the best players across the world, including Ronaldo, but failed to live up to the expectations. In the end the Messi magic overpowered them. Messi has been instrumental for Barcelona this season and has once again proved what a great player he is.

During the final day of the season Barcelona, playing in front of the home crowd looked absolutely invincible against Valladolid and displayed some breathtaking football against the hapless opponents. On the other hand Real Madrid ended their lackluster season with a 1-1 draw with Malaga.

It was undoubtedly one of the most intense seasons of all times and Real Madrid have only themselves to blame for not taking home a single trophy and hats off to Barcelona and Messi for a wonderful season.

Barcelona looked all set to retain their La Liga title as they defeated Deportivo Coruna 3-0 in their home match on Wednesday. Bojan Krkic, Yaya Toure and Pedro fired a goal each to ensure their team had an easy walk on the park. Barcelona had ensured a three point table top lead by defeating Real Madrid 2-0 on Saturday and their win against Deportivo Coruna means they now stand six points clear of the next best team in the La Liga table.

The clash that was held in the Nou Camp stadium again saw Barcelona stamping their authority over their rivals. They had suffered a major setback before the match as both Ibrahamovic and Andres Iniesta were reported injured. The Deportivo’s defense was shaken very early by Xavi who helped Bojan to score a decisive goal in the 16th minute of the match. Rafael Marquez and Messi also made their intentions very clear but were ably cleared by the defenders.

However, if you had to choose the best out of the three goals it would have to be the one that Pedro scored in the 69th minute. He made the spectacular goal from the inside of the visitor’s half. The efforts of Aranzubia to keep his team in the match faced a serious dent when a powerful strike from Toure made the score read 3-0 in favor of Barcelona.

Barcelona moved to the top of the ladder in the Spanish League standings by the virtue of their victory over Mallorca. The second half goal by Zlatan Ibrahamovic means that Barcelona now stands three points clear over Real Madrid. Madrid now has the onus to win against Atletico Madrid to stay in the race with Barcelona. Lionel Messi who replaced Andres Iniesta in the 51st minutes due to the latter having a leg problem, went scoreless for the second game in a row.

Messi is currently the leading scorer of the league with 25 goals to his credit. The points table has Barcelona at the top with 74 points, followed by Madrid at 71 and Valencia 53. The defeat at the hands of Barcelona has put Mallorca on the fourth position in the league with 47 points. The decisive goal of the match came in the 63rd minute by the Swedish striker who was perfectly positioned in the penalty box.

Barcelona had their first-leg quarter final clash on Wednesday at Arsenal and was hoping to score a few more goals ahead of that crucial game. They are riding high on five consecutive wins and head to north London with full confidence. Iniesta would go through tests on Sunday to find out the damage to his right leg. Pep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach was all praises for his team and said that they played beautifully in the second half. Mallorca too had their chances but they failed to capitalize and ended up on the losing side.

Real Madrid which is undoubtedly the richest football team in the world suffered their third defeat of the season when they lost 1-0 to Athletic Club Bilbao in San Mames stadium. Unlike the multi-million Euro team, the Athletics does not have the star power and have also spent just 2 million Euros this season. Majority of the members of the Athletic team are from the Basque district which also explains their wonderful relationship with the fans.

There was some early action in the match and the goal from the Athletic striker Fernando Llorente in the second minute of the tie proved to be the decisive strike. The striker used the corner which was taken by Fran Yeste to score the only goal of the match which proved to be the difference between the two sides by heading it beautifully after getting the better of the Real Madrid mid-fielder Lassana Diarra. The Athletic received a tremendous amount of support from the crowd in San Mames and seemed in total control of the game right from the beginning.

Real Madrid did get some momentum in the later part of the match and Karim Benzema, the French striker even threatened to level the score just before half time. The atmosphere was electric in the second half as the crowd sat expecting a fight back from Real Madrid with Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo looking for the equalizer. However, both Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo looked off colour and it did make a major difference to the eventual score.

Cristiano Ronaldo admitted that he wants Wayne Rooney to join Real Madrid in order to put up a great show in La Liga. The former playmaker of Manchester United felt to continue the success achieved in other competitions, it is important that Rooney joins him at Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney together form a lethal combination which can give nightmares to most defenders over the world. The admirable abilities of the duo on the pitch can fool best of the defences and it is simply impossible to contain both of them when they are in full flow.

There were speculations that Cristiano Ronaldo would not be able to make it big in La Liga when he moved to Real Madrid after leaving Manchester united. But, Cristiano Ronaldo has proved everybody wrong with wonderful display of his skills and though he has not been in action for more than two months, he still remains the most dangerous player for Los Blanco. He has already scored 13 goals for Real Madrid, 7 of which have come in the 8 La Liga matches that he has appeared in so far.

The Portuguese star is very optimistic about his future with Real Madrid. Although, Real Madrid has spend a phenomenal amount of money to rope in some of the biggest stars like Kaka, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso last summer, speculations are that the club is planning to buy the services of Sergio Aguero of Ateltico Madrid and only time would tell if Rooney is also on that list and if Criastino Ronaldo’s wish comes true.

UEFA president Michael Platini has maintained his stand on the fact that he viewed the record signing of Cristiano Ronaldo by Real Madrid as indecent. Real Madrid has reportedly signed Ronaldo for a whopping 94 million euros. The UEFA president who was on a visit to the Spanish giants’ stadium expressed his opinion that the amount seemed indecent in a news conference at the Santiago Bernabeu. The remarks came just before the clash between Real and AC Milan in the Champions League.

Platini who sat beside Florentino Perez, the President of the Real Madrid, admitted to having no problems with the signing as he felt that it was not a big deal for a club like Real who has the money to make such record signing. Everything seemed perfectly alright between the two top guns. UEFA had earlier sought to curb the splurges which the clubs had been indulging in. Perez also went up to the extent of saying that the relationship between Real Madrid and UEFA and between its officials have always been smooth and hoped that it would continue to remain so. He described the ties between two parties as excellent.

Real Madrid came under the hammer for signing Ronaldo from Manchester City and Kaka from AC Milan. Platini has termed the transfers as a serious challenge to the idea of fairplay and the Vatican newspaper felt that the Real’s spending splurge may push soccer clubs towards bankruptcy. Perez who has the credit of bringing top notch stars like Zidane and Figo to Real, made it public that the club has a budget of 422 million euros in the upcoming season.

Barcelona has the momentum going into the Champions League group opener after having collected maximum points from their first two games in the league. The signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic has also seems to lifted their spirits.

Barcelona has signed Ibrahimovic, in a massive deal of 69 million euro, who is in excellent form having scored two goals in his first two games. He also played a crucial role in Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Getafe. Though he has not recovered from the surgery for his hand injury, he is happy that he is at least getting some much needed match practice. Ibrahimovic admits that he is feeling nostalgic as he gears up for the game against Inter Milan. Nicknamed as Ibracadabra, Ibrahimovic was part of the Inter team who won three league titles.

There were a few questions raised when the Barca coach Pep Guardiola acquired Ibrahimovic through a multi million euro deal. However, the performance of the Swedish international has put aside all the doubts. Reflecting on his performance against Getafe the coach admits that Ibrahimovic has the potential to become the focus of their attack. He created many chances for the team and was extraordinary in his play.

Ibrahimovic is also enjoying sharing the pitch with the likes of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta. They form a vital part of the Barca’s attack and were instrumental in the team’s victory in the Kings Cup and Champions League last season. Messi has done comparatively well with Barca when you compare his performance with the national team, but Barca’s fans are not complaining.

Real Madrid’s new acquisitions, Ronaldo and Kaka have only added to the charm of La Liga. The telecast of the matches would be shared on the ESPN family network. 360.com would show around 114 games while ESPN Deportes gets 95 and ESPN2 will show around 20 matches. The deal is set to increase the distribution chances of Deportes and also help GolTV to get a good return on its investment.

According to Rodrigo Lombello, the C.E.O. of GolTV, the deal was not influenced by the additions of Ronaldo and Kaka and would have happened regardless of their additions. Lino Garcia who is the general manger of ESPN Deportes is very excited about the fact that they can show one of most thrilling and popular sporting event to the Hispanic soccer fans in the U.S. Although the rights to Championship League went in the way of Fox networks ESPN already has rights to a number of FIFA events.

Real Madrid and Barcelona dominate the La Liga and have spilt 21 of the last 25 titles and the matches between the two will be simulcast by GolTV and ESPN.

• Carlos Cuellar has moved from Rangers to Aston Villa.  The Spanish Center Back is on the move after only one year with the Scottish League.
• Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas will miss at least the first 2 EPL matches with an injury.
• There has been a lot of rumors going around surrounding Barcelona and Samuel Eto’o.  One team in Europe made a rather bold statement claiming that they had inked the Barcelona forward.  Obviously, that has turned into nothing.  As it stands now, Coach Pep Guardiola has announced that he will remain with Barca. 
• Robinho has recently told Real Madrid that he will only move to Chelsea with a new deal set in place before any transfer takes place.  This obviously means that a new deal, will mean new money.  I think a change of scenery will help Robinho along and hopefully if he is moved, he will find his place with the Blues.
• Valencia rejected a bid from Man U for midfielder David Silva.  Valencia did not finish in the top this season in La Liga much to the surprise of many given the amount of talent they have.