“Has been my great success, because I am very happy here, it is like my family”, He confessed Raúl de Tomás in AS last October 1. Sincere. Looking into the eyes. In the quiet of a long talk. “I am very grateful for Rufete’s decision in his day, who called me, signed me and bet, and for risking paying such a high figure,” he assumed. And he added: “I don’t know what the future will hold, all I can say is that I’m going to leave everything for Espanyol. I’m from Espanyol now and I always will be, now until I die. I will fight for the club, for the fans and for everyone who is within this club ”.
Sentences as firm as that love declaration, or the feeling of belonging to the perica family that he verbalized last Sunday in an elaborate video of the club, they have been a constant since, the January 9, 2020, De Tomás will arrive at Espanyol. A relationship so intense that it seems to have passed much more than 22 months. And those that remain. Since your contract does not expire until June 30, 2026, his termination clause amounts to 60 million euros -70 to which he debuted with the Spanish National Team- and, even above all this, because his commitment has been total from the precise moment of its presentation: “For me it is important to have a long contract. My idea is to make history here, to achieve great things with this club”.
Rescued – after payment of 20 million fixed and 2.5 million in variables – of a Benfica in which he had barely added a thousand minutes and three goals since his arrival, separated from Real Madrid in the summer of 2019, De Tomás’s coupling at Espanyol was so instantaneous that he responded with goals in his first five games, just as curiously he has done in his last five days this season, in which he has seven goals and two assists, which has led him to debut in a selection call. In between, a final stretch of 2019-20 in which, to the drama of the descent, he added a complex injury to the patellar tendon, and a 2020-21 campaign in which he would uncover the jar of essences, with 23 goals in the Second Division that earned him the award Pichichi. Some of them, like his Stratospheric kick against Almería at 53.5 meters of the rival goal, authentic works of art.
Interview with Raúl de Tomás in AS, last October 1.
His characteristic appearance, with that slicked hair, that footballer pose from before and even with that singular silkscreen – his initials, RDT– on the shirt, do the rest so that the Madrid native has become one of the most powerful images that Espanyol can project and a very media character wherever he steps, partly also because of his Real Madrid past. His present is parakeet. And its future, unless an offer that convinces all parties indicates otherwise, too. As identified as his kiss to the shield. RdT Espanyol de Barcelona.
La Liga Santander
* Data updated as of November 10, 2021