Raúl Arribas Torre (born 23 June 1969), sometimes known simply as Raúl, is a Spanish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He played in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

for

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

, making a total of eleven top flight appearances. He also had long spells in the lower divisions with

Leganés Leganés () is a city in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Considered part of the Madrid metropolitan area, it is located about 11 km southwest of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 188,425, making it the region's fifth most popu ...

and

Alcorcón Alcorcón () is a city and municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. As of 2022, it had a population of 170,296. Geography The municipality, largely flat, lies at an average altitude of 711 metres above sea level, with the hi ...

, achieving over 100 appearances for each club.

Club career

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, Raúl started out playing in the youth teams of local club Español. He was loaned to

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

side L'Hospitalet in 1988, and made 71 appearances for the club before returning to his parent club in 1990. He again went on loan in 1991, this time to

Palamós Palamós () is a town and municipality in the Mediterranean Costa Brava, located in the ''comarca'' of Baix Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Palamós is located at the northern end of a large bay. The town is by-passed by th ...

in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

, where he spent two seasons. From the 1993–94 season, he was part of the Español first team, but made no appearances in his first season as the club earned promotion as Segunda División champions. Raúl stayed with Espanyol until 1998, but made just 36 appearances in all competitions across five seasons, including eleven in

. He moved back to the second tier with

in 1998, and was the club's first choice goalkeeper for seven seasons, playing a total of 221 matches. Leganés were relegated at the end of the 2003–04 season, and Raúl stayed for one more year before joining fellow third-tier side

in 2005. Raúl played for the next four years with Alcorcón, including representing the club in the

2009 Segunda División B play-offs The 2009 Segunda División B play-offs (Playoffs de Ascenso or Promoción de Ascenso) were the final playoffs for promotion from 2008–09 Segunda División B to the 2009–10 Segunda División. The four first placed teams in each of the four Segund ...

at the age of 40. They made it the final round before losing to

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

, which would be Raúl's final match as a professional.

Retirement

Since his retirement, Raúl runs a dental clinic called ''Dental Domenech'' in

with his wife.

Honours

Palamós * Copa Generalitat: 1991–92 Espanyol *

: 1993–94

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arribas, Raúl 1969 births Living people Footballers from Barcelona Spanish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CE L'Hospitalet players Palamós CF footballers RCD Espanyol footballers CD Leganés players AD Alcorcón footballers 20th-century Spanish sportsmen