In all competitions, he played 741 times, scoring 323 goals, 16 more than Alfredo Di Stéfano and behind only Cristiano Ronaldo.

With Real Madrid, he won six La Liga and three Champions League titles. He was captain of the team from 2003 to 2010.

In the Champions League, he was the leading goalscorer with 71 until overtaken by Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.  

Raúl was also captain of the Spanish national team for five years, though he played his last game in 2006, before Spain became the dominant side in the world. He scored 44 goals in 102 games, which was then a record, and played in three FIFA World Cups and two European Championships.

In 2010 he left Real Madrid and moved to German club Schalke 04, for whom he played 66 times and scored 28 goals. In February 2012, he scored the 400th goal of his career and at the end of that season moved to the Middle East to play for Qatar club Al Sadd.

On March 5, 2014, Raúl announced he would retire from professional football at the end of the Qatari football season, marking the end of a 20-year senior career.

However, in October 2014, he was persuaded to return to the game and signed a contract with New York Cosmos. In November, he scored the winning goal as his team came from behind to win 2–1 against the Strikers to earn a place at Soccer Bowl 2015, which his team won 3–2 against Ottawa Fury. He retired after the match.

Raúl is the only player to have won the UEFA Best Forward of the Year Award three times, in 2000, 2001 and 2002, but he was never voted FIFA World Player of the Year, the nearest he came to that was third in 2001. He does, however, have the distinction of never have received a red card in his professional career.

He became a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy in 2016, having previously been an Ambassador.