Madrid - Many Spanish football fans are in favour of Real Madrid veteran Raul returning to the national team, an online opinion poll taken by sports daily Marca shows.

Of a total of 31,587 votes registered in the poll by Tuesday morning, 68 per cent voted "yes" to the question and 32 per cent voted "no".

Raul, 31, is in excellent form, helping Real to reduce Barca's lead at the top from 12 points to four points in the past three weeks.

He has scored 14 league goals this season, five of them in the last three games.

Two weeks ago Raul broke Alfredo Di Stefano's record of 307 goals for Real.

He played for Spain between 1996 and 2006, scoring 44 goals in 102 games. Controversially, he has not been chosen for "La Seleccion" since 2006 after allegedly feuding with national manager Luis Aragones at the 2006 World Cup finals, where he was a reserve to strikers Fernando Torres and David Villa.

Aragones did not take Raul to Euro 2008, and his faith in Torres and Villa was rewarded as the pair led Spain to the European title. (dpa)