At last! Wolves star Raul makes cover of yearbook

IT has taken 51 years but a Wolves player is finally on the cover of English football’s famous annual.

Star striker Raul Jimenez is one of three players featured on what is now known as the Football Yearbook.

Also on the cover are Virgil van Dijk of Premier League winners Liverpool and Raheem Sterling of FA Cup and League Cup winners Manchester City.

The annual started life in 1970 as the Rothmans Football Yearbook and after 33 years it became the Sky Sports Yearbook. There was some doubt about its continuance when Sky ceased their sponsorship but The Sun newspaper has stepped into the breach for the past three years.

A huge publication of football facts and figures, it is the bible of English football and also contains plenty of information about world football.

Maybe it’s not surprising that a Wolves player has not been on the cover though there have been occasions when a good case could be made out.

Cup

Perhaps Mike Bailey could have been featured when Wolves won the League Cup in 1974 or Emlyn Hughes when Wolves won the trophy again six years later.

Or Steve Bull could have been on the cover in 1989 after becoming the only player to have totalled a half century of goals two seasons running.

At least it says something about Wolves’ recent rise to prominence that they finally have a man on the yearbook’s cover.

Ironically, it comes in a year when they have not won anything – apart from a lot of admiration for again finishing seventh in the Premier League and reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa Cup.