"When I played in Holland, I always tried to lob the goalkeeper," Dennis Bergkamp once said. "People used to say, 'Oh, you're always only trying to make a nice goal.' But I said, 'Listen, if the goalie is a little bit off his line, how much space do you have on his left or right? It's not a lot. And how much space do you have above him? There is more. It's a question of mathematics."

If anyone ever agreed with this, it was Raul Gonzalez Blanco. The former Real ­Madrid striker, who retired this week, was seemingly obsessed with humiliating opposition goalkeepers. There was a time when it seemed that he was on a one-man crusade to prove to the keepers that no matter what was printed on the back of their respective shirts, he was No.1 on the pitch.

The image of the reedy Raul of Real in his billowing No.7 shirt is synonymous with all manner of chips, lobs, scoops, lifts, dinks and wedges. He had a left foot so good that it can only be compared to the fictional Roy McAvoy's skill with a 7-iron in the golf film Tin Cup - fitting because people have forgotten just how good a sports film that is.

Raul scored with his instep, the outside of the boot and his toes, but there was more mastery still. Inside the area, outside the area, even from ­inside the six-yard (5.49-­meter) box, when one-on-one with the keeper, the boy could do it all, and he made the improbable look pedestrian. He even did so on the volley, first time, when most footballers would have struggled to take the ball down. And then there was the time he produced a lobbed header.

If Raul's trademark goals were "a question of mathematics," as the Dutch Master so eloquently put it, then the Spaniard is the prime candidate to for the Nobel Prize. His numbers certainly stand up.

He has the most appearances for Real Madrid and was their top scorer until Cristiano Ronaldo's unfathomable exploits. He is third on the Champions League top scorer list - having lost top spot only recently in Messi's duel with Ronaldo - and has the second most appearances in the tournament after Ryan Giggs.

And he's gone out in style, as always. His last-ever touch for Real Madrid was a goal, and the last game he played saw him lift the North American Soccer League championship with the New York Cosmos. More than that, in the post-game press conference, Raul invited teammate and fellow retiree Marcos Senna to join him. A final touch of class from Raul, an unforgettable footballer and a gentleman, to boot.

The author is a Beijing-based writer. jmawhite@gmail.com