Former Real Madrid striker Raul has joined Al Sadd of Qatar after leaving Schalke 04 at the end of his contract with the Bundesliga club.
As Schalke 04 are carried to new heights by the Champions League's most experienced player, Manchester United's hopes are being increasingly pinned on a man expected to play only a peripheral role this season.
Goals from Raul Gonzalez and Julio Baptista gave the reigning Spanish champions a 2-0 victory over Real Betis in La Liga.
It compounded a woeful few months for the club as coach Julen Lopetegui came and went before former player Santiago Solari replaced him in November. They sat sixth in La Liga and appeared a team in decline, sorely missing forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who left for Juventus last summer.
Cuba's Olympic team took to the field with only 10 men against Honduras after up to seven players defected.
The 25-year-old striker was operated upon for acute appendicitis and will miss Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg away to Manchester United.
The prolific Spanish striker had missed Real's 2-0 defeat by Valencia on Saturday.
A first-half double from Karim Benzema helped Real Madrid cruise to a 3-0 victory away to Cadiz that moved them top of La Liga.
A round-up of Wednesday's action in the UEFA Champions League.
Cristiano Ronaldo has urged Real Madrid to renew his contract and said he wanted to see out his career in the Spanish capital. Ronaldo's immediate future at Real has been in doubt all season, with speculation growing throughout the year that he was plotting a move to Paris Saint-Germain but the prolific Portuguese has now made it clear he wants to stay at the club. "Real Madrid would be making a smart decision if they offered me a new contract," Ronaldo told Spanish television programme La Sexta on Wednesday. "I want to stay here, there have been good moments and bad moments. Four years ago I wasn't happy here but now I am and I can't think of a better club to be at than Real Madrid, there's no team like it. The other clubs can forget it." Ronaldo overtook Raul Gonzalez as Real's all-time top scorer earlier this season and on Saturday will be hoping to inspire the team to their 11th European Cup success when they take on Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final in Milan.
Former Real Madrid forward Raul, the Spanish giants' joint-record scorer, will hang up his boots in November after a stellar 21-year career as one of the game's finest talents.
Former Real Madrid and Spain forward Raul has joined New York Cosmos for the 2015 season on a "multi-year" contract pending a medical, the North American Soccer League (NASL) club said on Thursday.
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