20 Greatest Players in Real Madrid History [Ranked]

The stadium is named after Bernabeu and without him, the club wouldn’t be the same as it is today. He was a brilliant player in the 1920s and was then president for 35 years between 1943 and 1978, overseeing a ridiculous amount of on-pitch success. Arguably the most important figure in Real Madrid’s illustrious history.

It stands to reason that the club wouldn’t have grown into the behemoth that it did if it wasn’t for Bernabeu’s impact. Despite spending a year with the club’s local rivals, Atletico Madrid, he’s still regarded as an icon at Los Blancos and his legacy will never be forgotten, regardless of his limited appearances.

6Raul Gonzalez

1994-2010

What a striker Raul was. He’s Real Madrid’s second-highest scorer with 323 goals and leads the way for appearances with an enormous 741. Raul brought an end to his incredible 16-year career at Los Blancos in 2010, with six La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues to boot.

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He consistently put up absurd scoring numbers throughout the majority of his career in Spain, and there were just two years during his time at the Bernabeu that he didn’t score in double figures. If it wasn’t for a certain Portuguese superstar, he’d still possess the top-scoring records for Madrid in the league and in the Champions League.

5Iker Casillas

1999-2015

San Iker could do it all between the sticks and rarely ever dropped a bad performance. He’s still the youngest goalkeeper to appear in a Champions League final and holds the record for the most clean sheets in the competition’s history. It’s a real shame things turned slightly sour towards the end of his Real Madrid career, but the fact remains that he’s an all-time great.

He spent 16 years in the club’s senior team and was one of the best goalkeepers in the world during his prime at the Bernabeu. Casillas won just about everything there was to win with Madrid and played over 700 times along the way. Just a world-class goalkeeper.

4Sergio Ramos

2005-2021

Probably the finest-ever Real Madrid captain. As well as leading the team marvellously for so many years and winning 22 trophies overall, Sergio Ramos scored a ridiculous number of goals for a centre-back. He left the Bernabeu with a collection totalling 101 across all competitions, a return worthy of a decent striker.

The Spaniard is still playing at a very high level at the age of 38, a testament to just how incredible he’s been and continues to be after all these years. It’s just a shame his time in Madrid didn’t end on the most positive of notes.

3Zinedine Zidane

2001-2006

A world-class player for Real Madrid and an equally good manager. In his playing days, ‘Zizou’ scored an incredible volley to win the 2001 Champions League final, and he then guided the club to a famous ‘three-peat’ in the competition from the dugout. The word ‘legend’ doesn’t really do him justice.

Zidane was a ferocious engine in the middle of the park for the club and regularly bossed the opposition midfielders. They didn’t stand a chance. He might have only spent five years playing at the Bernabeu, but his time as Real Madrid manager also added to his incredible legacy too.

2Alfredo Di Stefano

1953-1964

Two Ballon d’Ors, 308 goals in 396 games, eight La Liga titles, five Pichichis and five European Cups; that’s what Di Stefano achieved in his 11-year stint at Real Madrid. He also scored in every single one of the five European Cup finals he played in. They don’t make them quite like the ‘Blond Arrow’ anymore.

He spent over a decade with Madrid, and the impact he had during that time cannot be overstated. It would take someone special to outshine his legacy at the club. Unfortunately, one of the very best players ever also happened to play for them at one point.

1Cristiano Ronaldo

2009-2018

Cristiano Ronaldo is Real Madrid’s all-time record scorer with 450 goals, and he somehow achieved it in just 438 games. That return is absurd and will never be equalled by another player. Ronaldo also won four Champions Leagues at Real Madrid and scored 30 or more goals in every single season he was at the club. The 40-year-old really was a footballing cyborg in the Spanish capital.

He cost Madrid a world record transfer fee when he joined in 2009, and after nine incredible years, that saw him break all sorts of records and cement his status as one of the best players of all time, it’s fair to say that he was still a bargain.