Iker Casillas is the New Alan Knight, Raul is the New Steve Bull

Players always saying how much they love their clubs. Some of them even kiss the club crest when they score. But very few are willing to put their entire careers where their mouth are. Now – on Valentine’s Day no less – we can count Iker Casillas and Raul among those very few, as both have pledged their love to Real Madrid by signing contracts to last the rest of their careers. Casillas is only 26 (can you believe that? he’s still got maybe another ten years at the top level) but his new contract runs through to 2017. That’s so far in the future that all his teammates will probably be androids. Raul’s not so young at 30, but has still signed a contract until 2011.

Even better (if you’re a Madrid fan or a fan of player loyalty) there’s a clause in both contracts that if either man plays at least 30 games in a season they get an automatic one year extension.

With this move the players join the hallowed ranks of Alan Knight, who spent his whole career at Portsmouth, and Steve Bull who spent his career at Wolves when he probably should have moved on. It’s looking like the trio of Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes will spend their entire football lives at Man Utd too.

Encouraging to know that player loyalty still lives in the wake of the the Webster Ruling. But though no one doubts Casillas and Raul’s love for Real, let’s not pat them on the back too hard. It’s probably much easier to stay loyal when you already play for the richest club in the world.

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Category: Spain La Liga