Raúl García, without a record for most games in the League… for now: "It is still a goal, but it is not an obsession"

Last season Raúl García (Pamplona, 1986) played 35 of the 38 games that Athletic Bilbao played in LaLiga. He only started six games, but if this 2023/24 season had managed to maintain a similar progression, next summer we would be talking about the player with the most appearances in the history of the First Division, which, today, Andoni Zubizarreta and Joaquín Sánchez share. with 622.

The Navarrese began 23/24 with 589 games in the highest competition of Spanish football. His performance in the eighth season in the Bilbao team, 2022/23, had facilitated a renewal that was supported by Ernesto Valverde, coach of the Bilbao team, with whom he maintained and maintains a magnificent relationship.. “He renews because he thinks he has earned it on the field,” explain sources close to the forward.

But the coach is not using him as much as other years, in only six games of the 16 played so far, all coming from the bench. Despite his 37 years of age, he has only missed one call-up due to a dorso-lumbar contusion, according to the club, in the match against Villarreal. The footballer did not expect to play too much, but he did expect a little more prominence.

However, Athletic's offense is working, mainly thanks to Iñaki Williams and Gorka Guruzeta, who have almost half of the Bilbao team's 31 goals, eight and seven respectively.. And the team is fifth, in European positions, with 29 points, tied with Real Sociedad, sixth. In football, unfortunately, the maxim that if something works, don't touch it usually prevails.. Likewise, those around them think that “the year is very long.”

“It's not going to drag”

“He is excited to beat the record and it continues to be one of his goals, but it is not an obsession,” close sources explain.. This season is already impossible. Even if he plays everything, there are 22 days left, the 595 duels he has had so far could rise to 617, five away from the magic number of Zubi and Joaquín.

Likewise, the life of Raúl García, that Cholo Simeone warrior for whom he played from 2012/13 to 2014/15, is that of a player who “does not give up in life”, they say from those around him.. Although: “He's not going to drag himself to get the record,” they complete.

The Navarrese has now been in the First Division for 20 seasons, “more games than I dreamed of when I was in Osasuna,” close sources say.. The same ones with which Joaquín reached the figure that Raúl aspires to. Although the Betic player has played 22 years, he spent two years outside of Spain playing for Fiorentina. However, Zubizarreta only needed 17 seasons to reach 622. “Everyone tells me to get it because it's something beautiful, but those things don't move me. My career is not going to change by getting 15 or 20 more games,” the Navarrese said at the beginning of the season in Lezama.

Ramos and Navas, the following

The only active players in the Spanish league close to Raúl García's games are the Sevilla players, Sergio Ramos and Jesús Navas, both with experiences abroad. The one from Camas has 514 participations while the one from Los Palacios has 484. They are in ninth and fourteenth place, respectively, on a list that includes Raúl González (4th), Eusebio Sacristán (5th) and Paco Buyo (6th).

Lionel Messi, in eighth place with 520 games, is, along with Ramos, the only one in the top 10 who is still playing. However, it seems difficult for La Pulga to return to Spain to play 103 more games.

This afternoon will be special for him. They face Atlético de Madrid, the team with which they have won seven of their eight titles. The last was the 2021 Spanish Super Cup with Athletic. However, with this year's season, Raúl García has played more seasons with Los Leones, nine, than with Atlético, seven.

With no plans to abandon the Bilbao discipline, Raúl plans to continue playing but not because he is going to “crowd for the record”, as they say from those around him, but for the game that he fell in love with when he was a child and for which he gives his all every time. time he goes out onto the field to defend his team's colors.