Creating a Real Madrid biggest XI or a Barcelona biggest XI is impossibly tough tasks as it is.
But imagine the headache when trying to put together a classic combined XI of these two Spanish giants?
Well, we went. And here it is.
Iker Casillas – Real Madrid | Manuel Queimadelos Alonso / Getty Images
All in all, Iker Casillas spent 25 years at Real Madrid and joined his hometown club just nine years old. He joined the first team as a 16-year-old, made his debut as an 18-year-old and was virtually immobile until 2012.
Casillas won a total of five La Liga titles and claimed Champions League titles in 2000, 2002 and 2014. He was no longer a league starter in the latter campaign but retained his place in Europe.
Casillas was probably the best goalkeeper in the world for most of the 2000s, played 725 matches for Real and at the international level he lifted the World Cup and two European Championships as Spain’s captain.
Dani Alves – Barcelona | LLUIS GENE / Getty Images
Dani Alves has won over 40 trophies in his great career which is still going on even at the age of 37. More than half of them came during his time in Barcelona when he was part of a team that can claim to be the best of all time.
The Brazilian is revered as one of the great attacking slopes all the time and as an overlapping runner became such an important part of Barça’s system during these years.
Alves won the Champions League three times, two as part of the triple season.
Sergio Ramos – Real Madrid | Power Sport Images / Getty Images
Real Madrid saw fit to pay € 27 million for a teenager Sergio Ramos in 2005 and saw him repay the fee over and over again with everything he had achieved over the 16 years ago.
Although a regular from the start, Ramos established himself as a star from 2008 and coincided with Spain’s emergence as the dominant force on the international stage.
He was a key figure as Real won back-to-back Champions League titles in 2016, 2017 and 2018, having already been a winner in 2014, and has been in the FIFPro World XI every year since 2011.
Gerard Pique – Barcelona | VI-Images / Getty Images
Although he was educated at La Masia, Gerard Pique left Barcelona for his first taste of senior football with Manchester United. Since returning in 2008, he has played over 500 matches and won 28 trophies.
Pique’s very first season back at Camp Nou gave a treble and beat his former club in the Champions League final, one of three European titles to date.
The defender is synonymous with Barça and has long been tipped to become president, in the footsteps of his grandfather Amador Bernabeu, who was previously vice president.
Roberto Carlos – Real Madrid | Phil Cole / Getty Images
Together with international colleague Cafu, Roberto effectively redefined his role as a backback in the 1990s and brought huge attacking elements to the position.
His ability to hit a ball is legend, to get incredible power behind shots and free kicks, thanks not a small part to huge thigh muscles.
Carlos first arrived in Europe with Inter in 1995, but it was with Real after 1996 that he became a legend in the game, played over 500 times for Los Blancos and won three Champions League.
Miguel Munoz – Real Madrid | Keystone / Getty Images
Miguel Munoz was an early legend in the European Cup and was the captain who lifted both dominant Real’s first two trophies in the new competition in 1956 and 1957.
Munoz did not participate in the final in 1958, which was his last season with Real at the age of 36 after 10 years at the Bernabeu, but he quickly went into coaching and led Los Blancos to more European glory as manager in 1960 – one of the finals of all time.
Munoz then won another European Cup as Real’s manager in 1966.
Xavi – Barcelona | Jasper Juinen / Getty Images
There is an argument that Xavi is the single greatest midfielder of all time and defines an era in Barcelona that saw the club move away from international stars and focus on self-grown talent.
Acclaimed from nearby Terrassa, Xavi made his senior Barça debut as a teenager in 1998 and remained an automatic choice until his final season, the club’s 2014/15 treble campaign.
Three times Xavi finished in third place in the Ballon d’Or position, while at the international level he was named best player as Spain won Euro 2008 to start four years of dominance.
Andres Iniesta – Barcelona | Jasper Juinen / Getty Images
Andres Iniesta was a nine-time La Liga champion, four-time Champions League winner and, like Xavi, a contender for the award for greatest midfielder of all time.
Legend has it that after seeing a 15-year-old Iniesta play in a youth tournament, Pep Guardiola told midfielder Xavi: “You will retire for me, but this child will retire for both of us.”
Iniesta often came through the biggest stages and made important contributions in all four Champions League finals he played in, as well as the 2010 World Cup final with Spain.
Lionel Messi – Barcelona | David Ramos / Getty Images
Dozens of Argentines hailed the “next Maradona” shrunk in the long shadow cast by the icon, but Lionel Messi has in most ways surpassed his deceased compatriots.
For the past 15 years, Messi has raised the bar for what it means to be a superstar. He once scored 73 goals in a single season and has netted more than twice as many as Barcelona’s second best. He is now also at the top of the club’s review table all the time.
Six Ballon d’Or trophies underline his status as one of the best ever.
Alfredo Di Stefano – Real Madrid | STAFF / Getty Images
Alfredo Di Stefano was the original European Cup legend and made seven appearances in five finals at the start of the competition between 1956 and 1960.
The Argentine, who later became a naturalized Spaniard, won 15 major trophies in 11 years with Real and was also an early two-time winner of the Ballon d’Or.
Di Stefano 308 Real goals remained a club record for 44 years after his retirement. He is remembered as a very complete forward and is easily among the best of the 20th century.
Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid | Power Sport Images / Getty Images
Probably the only player who has surpassed Di Stefano in Real’s famous history is Cristiano Ronaldo. He was already a superstar when Los Blancos bought him for a world record transfer fee in 2009, but no one could have imagined the heights he would reach.
Ronaldo vs Messi has been the big debate of the 21st century, with both truly phenomenal players in different ways, who will never be seen again.
Ronaldo won four Champions Leagues over a five-year period with Real, which not even Messi can match.
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