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Jose Maria Gutierrez Hernandez, popularly known as Guti, spent almost his entire footballing career with the Spanish giants, Real Madrid. As a part of the famous Galacticos side, his Real Madrid senior career spanned over more than a decade and a half. During his stay at the Bernabeu, he won 15 major trophies including 5 La Liga and 3 UEFA Champions League titles.
After having started his footballing career as a striker, he had to be moved to the midfield position to replace Clarence Seedorf. His initial days at the heart of the midfield were full of struggle and that often saw him getting sent off. He soon returned to his preferred striking position but after the arrival of Ronaldo, he again returned to midfield.
He developed as a midfielder and improved his playmaking abilities as he had to share the bulk of playmaking duties post the departure of Zinedine Zidane. His passing and vision improved drastically after being given the responsibility of the chief playmaker of the team. His creativity, range of passing and vision can be compared to most of the modern day midfielders. Furthermore, he also found himself on the scoring charts and scored some vital goals in Madrid’s championship-winning side of 2006-07.
Following the arrivals of Kaka and Ronaldo, his role in the team became limited and often he was seen relegated to the bench. Things became worse for him after a scuffle with the head coach Manuel Pellegrini saw him out of action for a lengthy period. However, he would make a comeback to the starting line up after Kaka struggled in that same position.
With the arrival of Jose Mourinho after his treble winning season at Inter, he, along with Raul, was found surplus to requirements at Real Madrid, and was released in 2010. This ended an illustrious but less glamorous career of Guti at Real (even though he joined Besiktas after Real and was a part of the Turkish Cup winning team). A fan favourite who might not have had the flair of colleagues like Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Ronaldo or Raul, Guti definitely had the talent to feature in the starting line-up of a star-studded team and the zeal to always give his level best, irrespective of the situation.
He might have parted ways with his boyhood club, but fans will always remember him as a legend of the Bernabeu, someone who had donned the famous white shirt for fifteen years.
