The image unfolds of a sinking ship scene, with the captain calmly monitoring from the control room. On the Hercules roster, Raúl Ruiz stands as a steady captain who guides his crew through thick and thin. This season, the emphasis is stronger than ever as the team looks to build around him.
His leadership is set to shine in a campaign where he will be surrounded by fresh teammates, with the exception of César Moreno, Toscano, and a handful of promising juniors. The bracelet-clad captain, Raúl Ruiz, will celebrate his fourth consecutive season at Hércules and his fifth overall with the club. While his 67 official appearances in blue and white aren’t astronomical, they do crown him as the most seasoned veteran on the squad.
September will mark the 14th anniversary of Ruiz’s debut with Hércules’ first team. He broke in during a Cup clash against Levante on September 3, 2008, a match Alicante’s side earned in extra time. He started and played two hours, proving himself with confidence and a willingness to take chances on goal. That night fulfilled a childhood dream for the boy who joined Hércules’ youth system at the age of ten.
Ruiz’s ascent began in the league at just 18, when he debuted in the Second Division against Zaragoza a month later. He featured in ten matches against Huesca in this division and found the net once. His early potential drew notice from national teams and even Real Madrid, who brought him into Castilla.
By January 2020, the global pandemic pressed pause on football, and Ruiz’s career took an unusual turn. His spell with Real Madrid’s system lasted two years before he moved through Albacete, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Guijuelo, and then Cyprus’ AEK Larnaca. That January, he returned to the blue-and-white fold with Hércules amid a tense moment, flirting with relegation to the Third Division. Destiny’s script saw Levante’s subsidiary reappear as the reboot’s rival.
5 goals last season
Since then, the Alicante locker room has hosted plenty of adversity for Ruiz. The season was interrupted and ultimately suspended because of the pandemic, Hércules navigated a relegation to the Second RFEF in 2020/21, and a hard-fought push to secure promotion last year fell short. Even while starting from defensive duties, the captain contributed five goals in 31 appearances during the 2021/22 campaign, sliding in as the team’s third-highest scorer behind Aketxe and Raúl González, who each struck seven.
That summer, Ruiz opted to explore options away from the club he grew up with. At 32, he decided to stay patient and eventually renewed with Hércules, unsure of what a fresh project would bring under Paco Peña, who arrived in Alicante as a new guiding voice as Ruiz shifted from a growing youth to a veteran presence. The club would undergo a facelift, and the captain would be asked to steer a locker room shaped by turnover. Yet the man with the bracelet on his left arm would remain a constant—a captain who did not abandon ship amid the darkest memories in recent times.