Former Real Madrid striker Raúl González has been appointed head coach of Spanish second division side Real Oviedo, the club announced on Monday.
The 49-year-old, who coached Real Madrid's reserves from 2019 to 2025, signed a contract until June 2028. He replaces Julián Calero, whom Oviedo sacked on Monday with the side ninth in Spain's second division after 13 rounds, with 21 points. Raúl will be officially presented on Tuesday and is scheduled to debut on Saturday in a home match against Girona at the Carlos Tartiere stadium.
This marks Raúl's first role in senior club management. Before taking charge of Real Madrid's B team, known as Castilla, he coached the club's youth sides and won the Youth League in the 2019-20 season. During his six seasons with Castilla, he won 39 percent of his 209 matches and twice reached the promotion playoffs without securing promotion. He was replaced by Álvaro Arbeloa in May 2025 and left the club that summer after more than two decades. He had failed to land the first-team job despite interest from Villarreal and Leeds United in 2023.
As a player, Raúl scored 323 goals in 741 games for Real Madrid, winning three Champions League titles and six La Liga championships. He also played for Schalke in Germany, Al Sadd in Qatar and the New York Cosmos in the United States, and scored 44 goals in 102 appearances for Spain. He ranks as the sixth-highest scorer in Spain's top division history with 228 goals.
"My way of understanding football is with respecting the talent [in the squad] but asking for unconditional effort," Raúl said in a video on Oviedo's social media. "The team has to fight from the first minute to the last for victory so the fans are proud of them." In his first words to the club's official media, he described Oviedo as "an exigent place" and said he was "very excited" to take on the challenge.
Raúl is the sixth manager to lead Oviedo in the last three seasons. The club, based in Asturias, is currently seven points behind the league leader. As a player, Raúl visited Oviedo's Carlos Tartiere stadium seven times and won only twice, scoring both goals in a 1-2 victory in January 1996.
