The Top-30 Most Fun Players In Real Madrid History: Ranked

These observations — where I look at Real Madrid’s history, its players on loan, Castilla, tactical tidbits, and other relevant thoughts — are now a regular thing. All previous editions can be found here.

It’s time to deviate from the regular, run-of-the-mill Real Madrid news cycle filled with tactical discussion and otherwise unnecessary drama that comes with such a star-studded version of the biggest football club in history.

Speaking of history, we’re about to do a deep dive on the most fun players that ever donned the white shirt.

What does ‘fun’ mean, anyway?

Here are some rules.

Interest from casuals: Would a casual fan tune in to just watch this player? Think of Steph Curry and Michael Jordan — the type of figure who could draw a crowd hours early to the arena just to see him walk around and warm up.

Can you watch him even if he plays bad?: Could said player be terrible in a game, but you’d stick around anyway just in case he scores a bicycle kick in the 98th minute? Would you watch 47 minutes of Vince Carter and Ja Morant throw up bricks just to see them throw down an all-time highlight in the last minute of the game?

Elegance: Some players just have bounce. You can’t explain it. They just look cool when they play.

No current players allowed: This part is only to make my own life easier. This rule disqualifies the likes of Luka Modric, Vinicius Jr, and Jude Bellingham. My goal is to release an updated version of this article once every 10 years. Set your alarms.

This is not up for debate: There is no room for subjectivity. What I’ve written here is authoritative and factual. These are, in this exact order, the 30 most fun players in Real Madrid history. If you disagree, you’re wrong.

(The last rule is a joke. Disagree all you want. This is subjective. I may enjoy different players than you. Have fun!)

This ranking has nothing to do with how great the player is, just how fun they are to watch. Ranking takes into consideration their peak (even if their peak wasn’t at Real Madrid):

30. Xabi Alonso

Xabi Alonso may not have been the most dynamic, flair-popping player of his time, but there was something about his ability to understand the game, to glide, be positionally sound, and ping passes anywhere, anytime, that was beautiful to watch.

Call me old fashioned, but they just don’t make them like Alonso anymore. There was a gracefulness about him. He was tall, press-resistant, and despite his famous quote, where he stated “I don’t think tackling is a quality. It is a resource, something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game,” he had an innate ability to win the ball, through sheer positioning, or with a nasty slide tackle when needed.

These 40-yard passes were pure eye candy:

Ridiculous:

Have you ever seen Alonso walk around in person? He’s just as graceful. Every eye in the room shifts to him. That’s ‘aura’. Is he ever not wearing a suit? Has he ever had a bad hair day? Why is his beard perfectly trimmed constantly? How can we relate to this alpha? He’s not one of us.

Maybe he’s a cyborg? I doubt it. Robots are more clunky. Alonso’s game is too smooth for that possibility.

It’s a shame we never got to see Alonso link up with Toni Kroos (another player who makes this list), but we did get to see an incredible trident between Alonso, Angel di Maria, and Luka Modric in the historic Decima season, where the three linked up to form one of the most fun midfield trios in club history.

29. Michel

If we’re taking into consideration pure traditional right wingers, Michel is the best in Real Madrid history not named Amancio. He had both an unplayable peak and insane longevity. The only other two that are in the conversation are Luis Figo and Gareth Bale. Figo was great for one-to-two years, but his peak was mostly at Barca. Bale is the best right winger in terms of statistics and titles, but he wasn’t as traditionally stationed on the right side like Michel was.

Michel was pure, 80s/90s style. He played on the right wing and right wing only. No nonsense – he’d just dribble past players and put in pin-point crosses with his right foot. We often (rightfully) talk about David Beckham’s unparalleled crossing ability. Michel was right there. He could cross from any angle and any distance. He’d put the perfect curvature and velocity behind every ball. Hugo Sanchez, Ivan Zamorano, and Emilio Butragueño loved playing with him. They feasted on his crosses. Hugo, Bam Bam, and Buitre were like three great white sharks in the box while Michel threw up seals for them to gobble up.

Michel’s durability and longevity is truly spectacular. He was a reliable Ironman. From 1984 to 1996, he only played under 40 games per season once, and that was due to a knee injury in the 1994 – 1995 season. Up until his last Real Madrid breath Michel contributed. He played 50+ games in five separate seasons. From 1987 to 1994, he never dipped below 10 goals despite scoring not being his primary function; nevertheless he was very good at meeting crosses that came in from the left side and contributing goals.

Michel once said that putting on Real Madrid’s shirt turns you into the Incredible Hulk. Through his lens, that certainly was the case. He was monstrous, as were the giants around him – Quinta del Buitre, Hugo Sanchez, etc.

An exquisite player. Michel was a wizard. They don’t make pure wingers like him anymore.

28. Laurie Cunningham

A player well ahead of his time, the only thing Laurie Cunningham – one of the best wingers in the world at his peak – was missing was health and luck. Cunningham was like Paco Gento and Garrincha. When you watched him, the only reason you’d know he was not playing in 2024 was because of the film quality. Otherwise, he’d fit right in today’s game because of his explosiveness, line-breaking and trickery.

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Cunningham had an entire bag full of tricks, and a change of pace that, even if you knew was coming, couldn’t stop because of the explosiveness with which he turned direction.

His style of play would still hold up today, and I’d dare say Real Madrid would benefit from him if he was air-dropped via time machine into today’s squad. He could play as a pure right-winger (but also operate on both wings), and give wing-backs hell with his relentless incisiveness. Vinicius on the left and Cunningham on the right would be unfair.

“He drove us crazy with his dribbling, his bursts, his speed,” Migueli, Barcelona’s center-back, said of defending Cunningham the night that Cunningham received a standing ovation at the Camp Nou. “He was electric, impressive,”

“His acceleration was unbelievable,” Jose Antonio Camacho said of Cunningham. “Voosh! He was like an airplane taking off.”

Photo by Peter Robinson – PA Images via Getty Images

Cunningham, a freak athlete, also gets extra style points for making Real Madrid a more fun team during his time at the club, in a team more known for its fight than its style. “Laurie was something different,” his teammate, Vicente del Bosque once said. “He is the leap in quality.”

27. Angel di Maria

Di Maria cult, rise. Those of us who were there can close our eyes and envision it: A tall lanky man with three lungs inside his chest, eeling his way in and out of traffic, carrying the ball 25 yards, cutting one way, then another; cutting inside, cutting outside; curling a shot top left corner; swinging in an unstoppable cross.

Angel di Maria was a personal favourite, but I know I’m not alone. His play style was unique. There was an agility to him that was rare to see. He made Carles Puyol do the splits:

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To me, Angel di Maria was the perfect winger. And I really mean it when I say ‘perfect’. If I was a manager and could go into create-a-player mode and sculpt the ideal person to put on the wings, it would be him. Di Maria understood the game at a high tactical level, and knew what it meant to be a winger. He was a nerd about it behind the scenes, and on the field, had the supreme talent to execute exactly what the team needed of him.

Equally impressive: He was just as aesthetically-breathtaking when deployed as a central-midfielder in the 2014 – 2015 season, when Carlo Ancelotti had to re-invent the Argentine in a deeper role. Di Maria, Xabi Alonso, and Luka Modric — all of whom are on this 30-man shortlist — formed one of the most fun midfield trios in Real Madrid history.

26. Steve McManaman

My favorite thing about Steve McManaman? He had the most unorthodox volley I’ve ever seen. Instead of merely putting his laces through the ball when it was in the air, McManaman would wind up with his left foot – as if he was riding a bicycle in the air – then snipe the ball with his right foot. It bamboozled everyone. He scored a goal with that technique in the 2000 Champions League final (where he also was the man of the match):

He scored one of the most outrageous goals I’ve ever seen with said artistry vs Real Oviedo in a league game at the Bernabeu in 2001:

The fact that we got to enjoy so much Macca-ball was down to his own versatility and humility. After Real Madrid signed Luis Figo for the right wing, McManaman happily went to the left, and the pair morphed into the best winger combo in Europe. The year after, when Zidane arrived, McManaman played both on the left and middle, and wherever the team needed him, without hassle. In that same season when Zidane arrived, he scored a crucial goal against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals with a deft chip.

25. Bernd Schuster

Schuster, like most Germans who played for Real Madrid, fit like a glove from day one. He played elegant football and was versatile.

In his two seasons at Real Madrid, Schuster achieved a lot, including back-to-back La Liga titles. In his first season under head coach Leo Benhakker, Schuster played in a central midfield role and played splitting through-balls to Hugo Sanchez and Emilio Butragueño. In his second season, when John Toshak took over managerial duties, Schuster played deeper. Think Toni Kroos dropping in-between center-backs to help with ball progression.

He played both roles in those two seasons masterfully. Seriously, it was impressive. Real Madrid were already great before signing him from Barcelona, but Schuster’s insertion made a well-oiled machine run even smoother. He slotted in as a new engine and basically kept the chance-creation prolific and infinite.

I went back and watched so many Quinta del Buitre games for my book, and in the ‘88-90 range, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Schuster’s bounce. The dude was impressively press-resistant with a natural ability to glide away from challenges all over the field. He could hit weighted dead-balls with accuracy, provided suffocating coverage on wingers defensively, and was a regular recipient of ‘SCHUSSSSTEEEER’ chants at the Bernabeu.

24. Martin Vazquez

Martin Vazquez played in slow motion under pressure, but turned up the dials, becoming an offensive supernova when it was needed. He was graceful like Luka Modric, played surgical passes, bounced out of pressure, and had developed a new-found goal-scoring ability in 1988 which made him an even further unstoppable force.

Vazquez’s ability to shape-shift and do so many different things on the ball was a big part and even underrated reason why Quinta del Buitre ticked the way it did, and why Real Madrid during that era was so deadly at so many different things.

Vazquez could cook in a variety of ways. He was ambidextrous, and could dribble and shoot with either feet. It didn’t matter which way your forced him to dribble. Defenders unfazed him. Part of what made him so fun to watch was the confidence and serenity he met defenders with. He was equally passionate about playing for Real Madrid as he was unbothered by the presence of defenders.

Look at this. Look at how silly this is:

Vazquez flicks the ball over the defender with his right foot, then before the ball hits the ground, flicks the ball with his right foot again — this time from a tight angle, over the goalkeeper’s head, and into the net. Gorgeous.

23. Raymond Kopa

Kopa may not have been a prolific goalscorer, but if we had line-breaking stats for him – dribbles completed, assists, key passes, etc – he’d be at the top of the list for his time. He was so good that he even won a Ballon D’or while Alfredo di Stefano was playing, and his dribbling was completely ahead of his time – no defender could keep Kopa in front of him. “How he dribbled!” Di Stefano once said of Kopa. “It was like he’d been born in Barracas.”

“He was a great player: strong, powerful, skillful,” Di Stefano also remarked. “He was extraordinary, dribbling the ball all over the place.”

Legendary center-back Jose Santamaria once said that Kopa was often the one that would help the team escape pressure when they had no idea what they were going to do otherwise had he not been on the field. “There would be moments when we were overwhelmed, under pressure, and he would start to dribble,” Santamaria said. “With him there on the wing, with the ball, we could recover.”

Kopa was also a marketing machine, which, in the 50s, is quite a feat. Ask any French kid of that time (source: trust me bro / Kiyan) and they wanted to be Kopa – emulating him in the streets of France. He was put on the map after a dominant performance in the 1958 World Cup – the same year he won the Balon D’or. He featured on the Ballon D’or podium four times.

22. Amancio Amaro

I often refer to Amancio’s above goal in the 1966 European Cup Final as a starting point for people wanting to know more about him. The goal encapsulates him as a footballer / wizard hybrid. Amancio was a menace on the ball, a real problem. No matter where he was on the field and how many people were around him, he would appear on the other side with the ball at his feet and the defenders in his dust. He has been called a genius, magician, and most notably a wizard, and it was all accurate. He reminds me a bit of peak Figo on the right wing – a player who you could feed the ball to on the flank and bet all your money that something nasty was about to happen. Amancio could cut in and shoot, or put a perfect ball into the box. His left foot was deadly. In 2024, he’d slot in as a modern inverted winger, akin to Arjen Robben, the guy everyone knew was about to cut inside but no one could stop despite having this information ahead of time.

My favourite thing about him: He would invite — nay, dare — defenders to approach him. He’d be ecstatic if multiple defenders would try to thwart it. That greater the challenge more he’d relish it.

21. Clarence Seedorf

Clarence Seedorf to me was one of the big ‘what ifs’ in Real Madrid’s history. His career at Real Madrid was far too short. His peak, which should’ve been here, was at AC Milan, in part because Guus Hiddink came in as coach and had no idea how to use him, and eventually demoted him.

Seedorf was one of the engines of the team’s two major trophies in the first two years of Lorenzo Sanz’s presidency, and should’ve been a bigger part of the future picture.

Seedorf had everything: Incredible ball control, unparalleled cerebral understanding of the game, versatility, athleticism, ridiculous shooting, elite passing, and, the main reason he makes this list: elegance.

He could fit in any scheme like a glove. His ball-retention was off the charts, both as a high-presser but also in midfield or sprinting back in transition. You never had to worry about his work ethic or his ability to organize the midfield and defense behind the ball. He was a menacing presence and one of the players I always dreaded playing against when Real Madrid had to face Milan in those blockbuster early-millenium clashes.

He was also cool. Growing up, the coolest people in the footballing world were: Edgar Davids (duh), Clarence Seedforf, David Beckham, and Zinedine Zidane. Everything about Seedorf was just super fun.

Long live Seedorf’s short Real Madrid career:

20. Karim Benzema

For a solid three-year stretch, Karim Benzema and Real Madrid were almost intertwined into one entity. Everything revolved around Benzema: his link-up, his instructions behind the ball (and his instructions in build-up), his genius movement and great finishing.

You register Benzema’s greatness when you watch him, but you truly register Benzema’s greatness after he’s gone — when there’s simply no one (and only a handful in football history) who are able to do what he did at such an elite level. He is missed.

Some forwards can do the link-up stuff, or press, or drop deep as a 10, or player as a pure nine if needed, or understand the game tactically so innately at an unteachable level. But few could do all of those things all at once. Benzema was one of the few.

Benzema was the perfect Cristiano Ronaldo compliment, and the perfect guy to pair with Vinicius Jr as the Brazilian was going through the grooming process in his first few years in Europe.

Benzema was also pure eye-candy on the field. Young Benz was a Ronaldo Nazario regen — with step overs and clinical low finishes at both the near and far post. There was something about his tidy pass-and-move sequences that brought so much joy to fans. He was quick, kept his touches at a minimal, and a truly unique and rare breed.

19. Raul Gonzalez

It took every ounce of my soul to not put Raul #1 on this list, due to sheer personal bias of him being my all-time favourite player. Raul was known for his intelligence more than anything, but please look at this (very normal goal for him) and tell me he was not a football artist:

Raul has somehow become underrated over time. He doesn’t get talked about as much as Zidane; and his highlight comps don’t get shared as much as Guti’s. But Raul was a master at controlling the ball with an immaculate first touch. There is no one in football history who chipped the goalkeeper more naturally at such a prolific rate.

His chip was so good, that players just couldn’t replicate it. His teamt

mate at Schalke, Julian Draxler, explained this to me a few years ago when I asked him for his best Raul stories:

“The ‘Raul Chip’ was incredible,” Julian Draxler, Raul’s former teammate told me in early September. “He made it look so easy when he was one against one with the goalkeeper.”

Draxler recalls trying to pick Raul’s brain about it, and only getting so far: “I remember one time in training I asked him how he does it.

“His answer: “It’s easy. If the goalkeeper is too close, just chip it — 90% (of the time) it’s a goal!

“(Raul) was smiling, and I was like, ‘If it was that easy, everybody could do it.’”

18. Toni Kroos

I think part of what makes Kroos special is that he elevates the entire team around him. He cares more about making the right play than making himself the focal point of the discussion. Everyone around him plays better when he’s on the field. Ask Sergio Ramos and Marcelo what it was like having him as the left central midfielder just ahead of them. He was a perpetual outlet that would never abandon you. If he received the ball coming out of the back, he reliably glided out of pressure with his first touch and shoulder drop, then kept the ball moving. Real Madrid’s entire offense was left-heavy during his Real Madrid career, and while we attribute that to players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Vinicius Jr – Kroos was just as much a part of it, and was responsible for the flawless diagonal switch to the right side after sucking in opposing defense and breaking them with the pass.

Kroos’s long diagonal has to be his signature. Like clockwork, almost every post-game podcast we’ve ever done at some point mentions in passing “by the way, Kroos completed 17 of 17 his long-ball attempts” and we said it casually because we were desensitized to it. Even Kroos’s goals are all nearly identical and robotic: they’re mostly one-touch passes at the top of the box that go into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

There is something special about watching a player so elite at the fundamentals. Kroos has a gorgeous shoulder drop and first touch out of pressure.

Is the Kroos Finger Point the single most badass shtick in football?

17. Paco Gento

“Who is this man?” Bobby Charlton pondered as he watched his team, Manchester United, get skinned alive by a lightning quick Spanish winger in the 1957 European Cup semi-final. “Whenever he got into any kind of decent position in midfield it was the signal for Gento to fly. Gento would go at a hundred miles an hour and Di Stefano would send the ball unerringly into his path. Gento would go bang, and you just heard yourself saying, ‘Oh God.’ It was pure revelation. What tactics might neutralise Di Stefano and Gento?

“Gento ran so fast you could not get him offside. I was just sitting there, watching, thinking it was the best thing I had ever seen.”

So what made him so good? For one, if you watch his highlight package (and I’d suggest watching the full match(es) of any of the following: any of the European Cup finals, and the aforementioned Manchester United semi-final), you’d think you’re watching someone from 2020. Seriously, apart from the hilariously bad broadcast footage, it’s pretty incredible to see a lightning quick winger light the left flank on fire as if he was a left footed Luis Figo.

“The lad was an introvert, he came from a small town and he felt out of place,” di Stefano recalled about Gento’s first season. “In the second year he became the best left winger in the world.”

Gento also had this freakish ability to be on a full sprint with the ball before stopping on a dime and changing direction – something beautifully explained years later by Ignacio Zoco:

“His speed was terrifying,” Zoco said about Gento. “It was impossible to stop him and as fast as he went he could stop in a metre while the other guy keeps running, skidding past trying to put the brakes on. He’s out of the game and Gento’s going the other way.”

As Puskas noted: “Our game was fairly simple – we knew that in Gento we had the quickest thing on two legs down the left wing.”

16. Gunter Netzer

One of my favourite players I never got to see play live. Netzer, like his German teammate at Real Madrid Paul Breitner, would’ve been a Twitter legend. He had Guti’s hair and passing ability, along with a stinger of a shot.

Netzer was signed by Real Madrid a year after the Spanish FA overturned an 11-year ban on signing foreign players which was implemented by Franco. While Barcelona signed Johan Cruyff in ‘73; Real answered by signing Netzer – a two-time West Germany player of the year and one of the greatest players of the 20th century – the ensuing summer.

“In my first year at Real, he played like I’ve never seen anybody else,” Breitner said in 2012. “Except Franz Beckenbauer perhaps.”

Netzer struggled a bit to mesh with the rest of his Spanish teammates in his first few months at Real, but once he hit his stride, he helped the club win back-to-back league titles against Cruyff’s Barca. It’s safe to say his signing was a success – even if brief as he only joined Real towards the end of his career.

In ‘Book of Footballers’ released in 1982, author Brian Granville described Netzer as such:

“Striding through defences with his flowing mane of blond hair, striking with those colossal size-eleven feet fifty-yard cross-field passes of astounding accuracy,”

Yep, I would’ve loved him had he played in this era.

15. Emilio Butragueño

Butragueño was a classic Real Madrid forward – the stereotypical 7 that is synonymous with the club. Like Raul Gonzalez and Karim Benzema, he thrived as a support forward alongside a more prolific goal-scorer. In the case of Butragueño, it was Hugo Sanchez. In the case of Raul, it was several – Ronaldo Nazario, Ruud Van Nistlerooy, Fernando Morientes, Ivan Zamorano. In the case of Benzema, it was Cristiano Ronaldo. But equally as impressive, Butragueño, Raul, and Benzema could also lead the line as a 9 if needed, and all three could drift to the wings and create and link-up with others. Supremely talented, supremely intelligent.

The most impressive thing about Butragueño when watching him play was that he could stop playing football for a millisecond and everyone would freeze on the field. No one can quite explain it, but Butragueño had this incredible ability to induce paralysis into defenders. It wasn’t for long. The paralysis wasn’t five seconds, three seconds, or even one second. It was one millisecond where Butragueño would get the ball in the box, stop dribbling, and stand. The defenders, cast into a spell, would just stop and look at him. In that millisecond, like The Flash, he could slow down time just long enough to cook his defender. You have to see it to believe it.

14. Isco

I give Isco bonus points because of his ‘artistry’ and ‘bounce’ – the two intangibles that I respect the most outside of ‘character’ and ‘cojones’. Like Zinedine Zidane, Isco reminded us that football wasn’t only about efficiency, it was also about entertainment. He dared opposing teams to press him just so that he could suck them into a vortex and release a pass to a wide open teammate, and he did it masterfully, with grace.

But make no mistake, Isco at the peak of his powers was as efficient as he was elegant. He was one of the most reliable goal-creators and ball progressors in the team for a solid two years, and thrived as the spearhead in Zidane’s diamond, and was surgical and unstoppable in multiple roles with the Spanish National Team under Julen Lopetegui, where he even annihilated Italy in a crucial World Cup qualifier in 2018 as a false nine. (No really, he absolutely murdered the Italians. It was gruesome.)

13. Guti

Cristiano Ronaldo said that Guti was the most talented player in the team when he arrived, and Guti, appropriately, slung some of the greatest assists in football history. He could play in a variety of different positions, and though he was best as a central midfielder, Vicente del Bosque played him as a striker in the 2000 – 2001 season out of necessity and got 17 goals out of him. Guti bled Madridismo and formed a cult following. He has both longevity and ‘peak’. Was he inconsistent? Yes. Was he fun as hell? Yes.

Make no mistake, that he lasted as long as he did, and to peak the way he did towards the last few seasons of his Real Madrid career feeding assists to Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, is an indication of how great he was. Guti lived through multiple eras and meshed with all of them. For most of his career, Guti was a 12th man you could plug in any situation. Needed goals? Guti. Needed control? Guti. Needed grit, grind, and fire? Guti. Needed to terrify opponents? Guti. Fabio Capello once said: “When Guti comes on as a sub, he always makes the difference”. Later, he claimed he would “invent something so that Guti can play”, and by saying so, he did – making Guti a starting central midfielder and getting an amazing season out of him when the team needed creativity in midfield alongside brutes like Mahamdou Diarra and Emerson to feed Ruud Van Nistelerooy.

12. Mesut Ozil

Ozil connected with everyone on the field and made everyone look better. He was aesthetically-breathtaking, cold-blooded, serene, and surgical. He showed up in every Clasico he played, even the ones Real Madrid got rocked, in part because he was so good at being pressed and Barca loved pressing. Hound him at your own peril. Like some eel, he’d find his way out of multiple players, and did it elegantly – the way the Bernabeu liked it.

There was a reason why Cristiano Ronaldo was upset when Real Madrid ultimately sold Ozil in 2013. The German fed the Portuguese assists and key passes as if he was my grandmother feeding me fresh-baked cookies.

And that his Real Madrid career ended in 2013, and not in 2020, is a disappointment itself. Maybe that’s harsh, but to remind you, we all thought Ozil was going to be a Real Madrid legend. He had humility and bounce. He could do things no one else could. The Spanish media thought he was the return of Zinedine Zidane. Xabi Alonso spoke publicly about Ozil’s style of play – that he was a dying breed. And he meant it in a good way. “He’s the kind of player you don’t find these days,” Alonso once said. Jorge Valdano, who regularly waxed lyrical about him, predicted Ozil would define the next decade at the club.

11. Roberto Carlos

Here are three fun facts about Roberto Carlos, unstoppable and unplayable at his peak:

• His thighs were 60cm in diameter.
• He ran the 100m sprint in 10.9 seconds
• His shots have been recorded at hitting 140 km/h

Just how good was Roberto Carlos? This quote from Vicente del Bosque explains how he transcended tactical problems:

“We had a bit of a problem because we had two similar midfielders, who were Zizou and Raul,” Del Bosque told The Athletic in 2023. “We always played with one striker in front of them, either Morientes or Ronaldo. We had to play with Raul and Zidane, so the organization of the game was covered by Roberto Carlos, who played as if he was two players.”

I love that, because it proves Carlos was as efficient as he was fun. Some of the most beautiful football Real Madrid ever played came from the left-sided synergy and one-touch passing between Carlos, Zidane, and Raul.

The Brazilian was pretty much impossible to stop. His speed was shocking. No one had a chance defending his overloads; no one felt safe blocking his shots.

So good:

10. Marcelo

Just how good was Marcelo? At one point, during the apex of Clasico stardom, he may have been the third best player in the entire league, and from an overall career standpoint, possibly the greatest attacking wing-back that has ever played the game. Diego Maradona once said “after Cristiano and Messi, Marcelo is one of the revelations of La Liga”. Think about that. That’s not one of those random fluff quotes that old legends spew. Marcelo and Cristiano together on the same flank was a cheat code – impossible to defend.

Marcelo was the kind of full-back that Real Madrid have never had, and may never have again. His skill-set was unique. He was a unicorn in what he did. Having him on the field was like having a Ronaldinho-type figure who played left-back but really just playing as an additional left-winger, combining with one of the greatest players ever over and over again.

But it wasn’t just Ronaldo. Along with Toni Kroos and Sergio Ramos – and often Isco there too – Real Madrid’s left side was the most press-resistant it’s ever been in its history.

“Marcelo brings the ball out with outstanding naturalness and ease,” Jorge Valdano once said. “He goes through the middle of the pitch as if it was his own home and, when he gets to the top of the pitch, he has the solutions a forward has. We’re used to full-backs like Gordillo or Roberto Carlos who plough the wing; Marcelo goes by planting flowers.”

Marcelo’s first touch was as electric as it was graceful. He was a true football artist — the kind that could make you tune into game just to see what kind of wizardry he would come up with:

The best part about Marcelo was his clutch gene. It wasn’t just Real Madrid fans who understood his greatness. Given that he showed up on the European stage over and over again, the world undeniably knew how cold-blooded he was.

9. Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale was frightening to face as a defender. If you gave him space to run behind you, he would cook you. If you gave him space to run in front of you, he’d still cook you. If you hedged off him 30 or 40 yards from goal, he’d unleash a long distance slinger. If you gave him the outside, he would blitz the wing and put in a ball to Ronaldo or Benzema’s feet. If you gave him the inside, he’d cut in and shoot. He was a towering aerial presence, technically gifted in tight spaces (an underrated trait of his), and worked extremely hard defensively at his peak.

At the apex of his powers, Zidane, Benitez, or Ancelotti could put him on the wing and he’d be a reliable, tireless two-way presence who could be the last man back making a vital slide tackle, and seconds later, be leading the attack. Unreal, perfect – one of the best wingers in Real Madrid history.

Most Real Madrid fans would agree that there was a longing for more of ‘peak Bale’. He gave the club and its fans so much, yet, there was a feeling that there was potentially much more in the tank — held back by crippling injuries.

I have said this often: We may not have known how good we had it — Bale on one side, Cristiano on the other. Both freaks in the air. That kind of aerial presence is extremely rare.

This is one of the greatest goals in Champions League history, and yet, somehow still underrated? Look at the air time he gets on this. Who reacts like this? Better yet, who reacts like this, and then executes an impossible athletic feat in such a high stake moment?

8. Alfredo di Stefano

On my quest to watch old film for my book, the 1960 European Cup final (which was Di Stefano’s fifth and final European Cup trophy) was at the top of my list. Watching that game was a surreal experience. Here are a couple of my notes from that match, specifically on the Don:

• A very wonky formation in an era of wonky formations. On paper, Real Madrid lined up in a 3-2-4-1; while Frankfurt mirrored it. As the match unfolded, it was a bit different. While Di Stefano was listed as a striker as the highest man up the pitch, he roamed everywhere. He was a false-nine before the false-nine was cool. Frankfurt’s formation was much more stagnant and rigid. Real Madrid’s was fluid and dynamic. While Frankfurt man-marked rather than focusing on denying space, they were blown away by overloads. Di Stefano would drop deep and drag defenders with him into midfield. He’d link-up with Vidal and Zárraga, and then exploit the space in the final third by constantly providing an outlet and making runs off the ball. Frankfurt had zero answer for this. (They’d eventually figure out that chasing Di Stefano all over the pitch was futile; but they’d already be blown away by the time they could even attempt to reverse the scoreline.)
• Everything about Di Stefano in that match was otherworldly. He was so ahead of his time and on a higher level than anyone else. One of the biggest misconceptions about Di Stefano was that he was just a forward. He wasn’t. He could play anywhere in the front six. Aesthetically, he was like Zidane (bald spot and all) when dropping into midfield to slow the game down and control the tempo. But he could also score buckets of goals high up the pitch and do so much more.

Let us remember the crucial factor that separates Di Stefano from other mere mortals, and puts him on a plane that no other footballer at the time could rival on a European level. It’s not just about goals –- the mere statistic he blew away every other human being in. It’s the timing of his goals; it’s the clutch-factor embedded into his genes; it’s his Madridismo; it’s his obsession to win every trophy imaginable without compromise; it’s the standard he set that made everyone else look ordinary; it’s the deeper position he played to ensure the team ticked at all times.

The drive — the insatiable competitiveness — is part of what made him so fun to watch. He was hungry, cold-blooded, and held both himself and his teammates to an uncompromisingly high standard.

7. Fernando Redondo

Redondo once told journalist Daniel Balmaced that the perfect footballer must be “skilled, talented, with character. A winning player who overcomes difficult moments. Intelligent, knows how to read the game.” Knowingly or unknowingly, he described himself. Any team that puts him at the base of their midfield immediately gets elite organization, tackling, tracking, dribbling, passing, and leadership. Redondo could glide out of pressure through multiple players with a dribbling aesthetic that I have yet to see be replicated. Some of his signature dribbling techniques were unique to him and him alone.

But the best part of him was how well he balanced his elegance and romantic style of football with a fire akin to that of Fernando Hierro and Sergio Ramos. He was a pillar – fierce and combative. Don’t believe me? Ask Roy Keane, one of the greatest defensive midfielders ever, in the peak of his physical power – known so much for his no-nonsense brutal style of football – get pocketed by Redondo in the 2000 Champions League quarter-finals. Remember that famous ‘taconazo’, where he backheels the ball around Henning Berg (erasing his entire career with one play) then sprints to the byline to set up Raul for a tap-in to put up Real Madrid by three goals at Old Trafford? Well, that’s the play everyone remembers Redondo for. And that’s great! But what gets lost is that it wasn’t just that play. Redondo devoured Manchester United’s midfield.

“What does this player have in his boots,” Manchester United head coach Sir Alex Ferguson said after the game. “.. A magnet?”

6. Luis Figo

If I had to make a list of the players I miss the most from the ‘good old days’, Figo is somewhere at the top. The Portuguese was the last of his kind. He was the best winger in the world during a time where wingers in a 4-4-2 reigned supreme.

Imagine being so good that the entire stadium – opposing players, coaches, fans, and all – knew that your game plan was to dump the ball down the right wing, ask Figo to cook one, two, three, four defenders and either cut in and shoot or put the ball into the box to Raul; and despite knowing all this, they were powerless to stop it. Figo took a knife to wing-backs, tortured them slowly, and beat them multiple times in the same play just because he could. He was breathtaking and above all, despite being the best dribbler on the planet and being a showman, his touches were purposeful. Every shoulder drop was to get out of space, every step-over was to send defenders the wrong way and create room for a pin-point cross. He was nimble, agile, but bulky and strong – hard to push off the ball. He did it all with grace, which always earns extra bonus points.

People often point to Figo’s peak being at Barca. While that’s not untrue, it’s also important to state that in Figo’s first season at Real Madrid, he looked as unstoppable as he ever did, formed an incredible partnership with Raul (they both made each other look so good on the pitch), and completely transformed the team’s ceiling.

5. Ronaldo Nazario

For some reason, we gloss over OG Ronaldo’s Real Madrid career because he was “past his peak”. True. But at 40% of my powers, I can still dunk on my toddler on our nerf net. From 2002 – 2007, Ronaldo wasn’t the generational transcendent star he was in 1997 – that version was truly special. That version was the Michael Jordan of the sport, the Nike poster child, the coolest dude walking, and the guy that was banging in 45+ goals in a season. He was ‘Him’.

In his first three seasons at Real Madrid – on the back of a historically great World Cup campaign and one of the top-two most memorable haircuts ever (with the other being his noodle-hair namesake, 2017) – Ronaldo scored 84 goals and gave us some of the greatest memories we had in the 2000s. He may not have been as nimble as he was in years’ prior, but he could still dribble past his opponents, was impressively explosive for his size, feasted on limited goal-scoring opportunities, and single-handedly carried the offense in the post-peak collective galactico haze.

Almost everything about Ronaldo’s first three years at the club struck a chord with the fans. He broke shirt-sales on the day of his signing. By October of 2002, having yet to play a single match due to an injury to start the season, he finally made his debut against Alaves at home, with the fans – blue-balled in anticipation of his debut – roaring as he entered the field as a substitute in the second half. He scored with his first touch within a minute of coming on, then scored again. Ronaldo running over to the corner flag to celebrate and hug Roberto Carlos (or Zidane, or Guti, or whoever gave him the assist) became a common occurrence. I can still see him jogging casually to the corner with a child-like smile on his face while wagging his finger.

In one of the most entertaining games in Champions League history – a 4 – 3 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford – Ronaldo, in Raul’s absence, scored a hat-trick, earning a standing ovation from Manchester United fans. All three goals were beautiful: 1) A difficult finish from outside the box from a tight angle; 2) Great off-ball movement on the back of gorgeous, patient build-up from Zidane, Guti, and Roberto Carlos; and 3) A long distance dipper. Sometimes you just remember hat-tricks as ‘hat-tricks’. But I remember every single goal in that one – not something I can say about every hat-trick.

4. Kaka

Kaka is not better than anyone on this list if we’re factoring in their Real Madrid careers. He did not make the top-95 Real Madrid players of all time in my upcoming book. Apologies for the spoiler.

Putting him fourth on this list might be surprising to some, possibly most. But if we’re talking about ‘fun factor’, few were more ‘fun’ than him. I have watched as many Kaka compilations on YouTube as any other player (apart from three, who you’ll get to know in the top-three on this list.)

There was something about peak Kaka — obviously at Milan — that was exhilarating. He did not use many flashy tricks, step-overs, rabonas, rainbow flicks, or whatever else people associate with flair. But maybe that’s what made him so cool — he got past his man with shoulder drops, intelligence, cuts, fakes, changes of pace. He was a master of hoodwinking opponents into thinking he was going one way before cutting the other way, leaving back-peddling defenders flat on their face — feeling manipulated and humiliated.

You don’t see anyone play the way Kaka does now. Simple, uncomplicated, but absolutely devastating. He was one of the few players I would tune in to watch despite playing for another team.

It was a bummer to have gotten the broken down version of an all-time great. Bar some moments of genius, we didn’t get to see his peak coincide with Cristiano Ronaldo’s, which would’ve been incredible to watch.

3. Michael Laudrup

I have a confession to make: I have watched an unhealthy amount of Michael Laudrup YouTube compilations in my life. I don’t know what the number is. It’s probably in the thousands.

So how good was Laudrup in his two years at Real Madrid? The answer is: ‘Yes’.

To put things into perspective, in a poll in Marca in 2013, fans voted Laudrup into Real Madrid’s best foreign all-time XI. If we’re only talking about peaks and not legacy, I’d consider Laudrup in the all-time team, full-stop – though he’d inevitably come up just short of Modric, Kroos, and Zidane.

Laudrup was unstoppable. He was a dribbling king. When he dropped his shoulder, the defender would drop with it. He was surgical with his line-breaking and vertical passing. His balls over the top were unmatched. He was arguably the best player in the world during his time.

Laudrup was so damn fun to watch. I’d easily slide him into an all-time XI of aesthetically-breathtaking footballers. I rarely play football without watching a Laudrup highlight reel before I lace up my boots.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo

I have no idea what the consensus on Cristiano Ronaldo is on the ‘fun’ scale. I suspect some will exclude them from their top-10 in favour of more stereotypically elegant players like Zinedine Zidane, Fernando Redondo, Guti, Mesut Ozil, or Luka Modric. Others may be outraged that he’s not number one.

I don’t know. But here’s how I see it: Cristiano was fun as hell. What kind of freak could launch himself into orbit just to meet a header or a bicycle kick? What kind of freak launched 40-yard rainmakers as if they were simple tap-ins? The explosiveness, the devastation, the athleticism, the step-overs — my God! He was an alien. Off the charts fun.

How many hat-tricks? How many blowout wins? How many soul-elevating moments in the biggest moments of the season?

Beyond what he did on a technical level, Cristiano ranks high on the ‘fun’ scale for reasons like this (where his mentality and cojones just make it impossible not to be entertained — unless you’re not a Real Madrid fan):

Even in the 2017 – 2018 season — his last with the club — he had so much left to give. Bonus points for always having the decency in his heart to provide Gerard Pique with a front-row seat to the Cristiano show:

Cristiano was inevitable. If you weren’t on the edge of your seat with your arms in the air for the entire Cristiano nine-year experience, you might not like this sport.

1. Zinedine Zidane

We measure greatness based on how players do when the stakes are at their highest. When the chips are down, who has the balls to step up and rise in the face of pressure with the season on the line? Zidane. That’s who. He scored in almost every conceivable big game – World Cup final, Champions League final, Euro Championship Figo, Clasico – and in every single one of those battles the opposition couldn’t touch him. If he wasn’t scoring or assisting, he was controlling possession and dictating the tempo to his own will. The team played at the pace Zidane wanted to play at, and as flashy as he was driving the ball forward, his touches were not superfluous. Give him space and he could carry the ball 40 yards in transition. Don’t give him space? Arguably worse – you’ve just enabled him to glide past you and find an open man in space. The bigger the game, the bigger Zidane’s presence was felt.

Here’s what the analytics community misses: We didn’t have advanced analytics for Zidane. He just missed the cut-off – playing right before the statistical revolution. Where would he rank in key passes? Expected assists? Ball carrying distance? Successful take-on percentage? Passes into the final third? Progressive passes? Progressive carrying distance?

Lucky for us, we don’t need those – we all saw greatness with our own eyes. We all knew that no matter who the opponent was, so long as Zinedine Zidane was on the field leading our team into battle, we had a fighter’s chance.

Let’s stop being nerds when analyzing Zidane – the man who reminded us that football is supposed to be beautiful and entertaining (sincerely, a nerd himself):

Long live Zidane!