New York // Former Real Madrid great Raul went into retirement in style on Sunday as his New York Cosmos beat the Ottawa Fury 3-2 to win the NASL title in his final match.
The 38-year-old, a multiple Primera Liga and Uefa Champions League winner with Real Madrid, played the full game, setting up third goal of Gaston Cellerino's hat-trick with a delicate flick.
The Cosmos claimed their second North American Soccer League Soccer Bowl title, to go with the one they captured in 2013.
“I”m very happy,” Raul said. “It was my last game in my career.
“I’m very proud for everything I did and thank you to the club, my teammates and the fans for this amazing year. For me now, I start a new life with another project. I’m happy, but I’m also very sad.”
Photo gallery: Former Real Madrid great Raul goes out in style by winning title with New York Cosmos
While Raul was the man of the moment, Cellerino was the man of the match, which also sent Spain’s Marcos Senna into retirement a winner.
“To win next to Raul was an ideal situation,” Senna said. “I’m thankful for him being here throughout the year as he made the difference many times and scored many goals.
“Today he didn’t get the goal, but he got the assist. He’s a player that is a game-changer.”
Raul began his pro career at Real Madrid in 1994 and spent 16 years with the Spanish side, sparking the capital side to six La Liga crowns, four Spanish Super Cups and three UEFA Champions League titles.
He departed in 2010 as Real Madrid’s all-time top goal scorer with 323, before recently being equalled by Cristiano Ronaldo on September 30.
After netting 40 goals in 98 matches for Germany’s Schalke 04 and helping the Bundesliga side to the 2011 Champions League semi-finals, he departed in 2012 for Qatari side Al-Sadd and retired in 2014 only to make a comeback late last year with the Cosmos.
The club’s appreciation was evident as Cosmos players lifted Raul and Senna into the air in a post-game tribute.
“We feel very lucky, our organization, to have these two great players retire with us,” head coach Giovanni Savarese said.
“These two great players I had the pleasure to coach makes a coach’s life easier because of the quality when they play. They were very important all year to push everybody to higher standards. The way they finished their careers today couldn’t be any other way.”
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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match info
Southampton 2 (Ings 32' & pen 89') Tottenham Hotspur 5 (Son 45', 47', 64', & 73', Kane 82')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
MATCH DETAILS
Juventus 2 (Bonucci 36, Ronaldo 90 6)
Genoa 1 (Kouame 40)
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
