Ranked! The 10 greatest Real Madrid players of all time: Figo, Raul, Ronaldo...

From Real Madrid academy stars to Galacticos and European champions, we rank the Blancos' best-ever

Real Madrid were going to complete the most star-studded football team in Europe since the one they'd assembled in the 1950s: and they didn't care whose toes they stepped on. 

Luis Figo arrived from Barcelona as the most controversial transfer of all time. But he was worth every penny of the eye-watering £40m or so – and worth all that drama. It wasn't just the incredible ability to beat a man, lay on the perfect assist or find space where there was none to be found, either: he never hid. He was a truly leader that aspired to carry his new teammates and they loved him for it. In five years in Madrid, he won two league titles and the Champions League. 

'The Galloping Major' had already had one career before he wound up in Spain: a career in which he'd scored 358 goals for Budapest Honved in 350 games and dazzled as part of the Magnificent Magyars. 

Ferenc Puskas reinvented himself at Real Madrid, however. He still had his velvet touch, his ability to bamboozle defenders and an unreal set-piece ability but alongside his new superstar teammates, he was happy to supply, too. He won three European Cups – and scored a hat-trick in a final that Los Blancos lost: he also scored four hat-tricks in his first season.

He's best remembered as a president (and, err, a stadium) but without Santiago Bernabeu the player, Real Madrid would look very different today. 

Bernabeu joined the club at the age of 14 and after breaking into the first team, it wasn't long before he captained them as a senior figure. In 79 official matches, he scored 68 times, leading from the front with physical strength and the kind of leadership that he'd later give to