Pedro Oliveira
Real Madrid is one of the most prestigious organizations in the world of sports, and the entire world understands what it does and where it comes from. This club is possibly the most popular in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most renowned clubs in world soccer. The capital club has the most Champions League trophies in history, with 13, and it is also the most honored club in Spain, having won 34 Spanish leagues.
We list the five greatest Real Madrid players in history, reviewing their careers and detailing their accomplishments within the club.
Raúl González Blanco
Raúl, regarded as one of the best Spanish attackers in history, is one of the few young Madrid players who was able to stand out at such high levels and who left an indelible mark at the capital club. He scored 323 goals in 16 seasons with the white uniform, from his debut in 1994 to 2010, claiming the club’s second historical position, in addition to being the player with the most appearances in the white institution’s history (741 games).
With Madrid, he won a total of 16 titles, including six Spanish leagues, four Spanish Supercopas, three Champions League titles, one European Super Cup and two Intercontinental Cups or, as it is known today, the Club World Cup.
Raúl currently continues to work within the Madrid institution, serving as technical director of Real Madrid’s B team, Real Madrid Castilla, holding the position since 2019. The Spaniard established and continues to build one of the most powerful legacies a player can have with a team today.
4.- Sergio Ramos
The former Spanish captain of Madrid now plays for Paris Saint-Germain, but that does not erase even a little part of the legacy he left in the white institution. He is currently one of the world’s top defenders, even if injuries prevent him from showing it. Having arrived from Sevilla, he joined the team at the start of the 2005-2006 season for €27 million, a record amount for a Spanish defender at the time.
Alternating between center back and right back for the first five years at the club, Ramos always occupied a place in the starting lineup, even though it was not his natural position. However, the best era of his performance with Real Madrid began from 2009 onwards: his name started to appear among the captains of the team, and from then on he would become one of the figures of the club and one of the best defenders in the world.
He is Real’s all-time leader in red cards, fourth in games played, and the second defender with the most goals, in addition to being first in the same category in La Liga and second in the Champions League. He has won 22 titles in his 16-year career with Madrid, including five Spanish league titles, two Copa del Rey, four Spanish and three European Super Cups, four Champions Leagues and four Club World Cups.
3. Ferenc Puskás
One of the most celebrated legends of European soccer and also ranked as one of the most spectacular goalscorers in the history of the sport, the Hungarian striker is the sixth-highest scorer in the history of the game, having accumulated 242 goals in 262 games over a period of 8 years. In this way, he also has the second-best goal average in the team’s history, with 0.92, only behind Cristiano Ronaldo.
He is also the second-highest scorer in European leagues, having reached 514 goals. Puskás won five consecutive Spanish league titles, one Copa del Rey, three European Cups and one Intercontinental Cup for a total of ten titles in his short stay with the Spanish capital club.
The greatest legacy of the Hungarian-Spanish player lies in the quality of his goals, being one of the most skillful and colorful strikers of his time and in the history of soccer. His duo with Alfredo Di Stéfano has been one of the most unforgettable pairs within Real Madrid and soccer in the 20th century.
2.- Alfredo Di Stéfano
Named as the most important player in Real Madrid’s history in the twentieth century, 11 seasons were all it needed for the Argentine star to be forever etched in the archives of the white institution, being a crucial piece for the club’s domination and progress during one of its most difficult times.
He was part of one of the most complicated trades in soccer history, between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, and ended up permanently with the white team. Di Stéfano had an immediate impact on the team, breaking the capital club’s 20-year drought in the Spanish league and crowning them winners in the 1953-1954 season, ushering in a new era in European soccer.
With Madrid, he won 15 official titles, including eight Spanish leagues, one Copa del Rey, five European Cups, and one Intercontinental Cup. In addition, he scored 308 goals in 396 matches, becoming the club’s all-time leading scorer, only to be surpassed by Raul and Cristiano Ronaldo. We might easily say that Di Stéfano’s rise sparked Real Madrid’s rise to become one of the most powerful clubs in soccer history, and that the Argentine’s participation was one of the most revolutionary displays of talent in the twentieth century.
1.- Cristiano Ronaldo
Being the most expensive signing in the history of soccer at the time, with his arrival at Real Madrid worth €94 million from Manchester United, the Portuguese only needed nine seasons to become the all-time leading scorer of the white institution, achieving the more than outstanding amount of 450 goals in 438 games played (averaging 1.02 goals per game, another of the marks achieved by him within the team).
Ronaldo won 15 official titles with Madrid, including two Spanish league titles, four Champions League titles, two Spanish and two European Supercopas and, finally, three Club World Cups. Individually, he won four golden balls and five golden boots.
He is considered one of the best players in history, and, along with Lionel Messi, the unquestionably best players of the modern era of soccer. The athletic ability, discipline, goal-scoring ability and leadership of Cristiano Ronaldo will forever be remembered, and it will be difficult for anyone to match what he did.
