No club in world football has boasted as many world-class superstars as Real Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane, Michael Owen and Kaka all had a Ballon d’Or under their belt when they were signed by Los Blancos, but there are also plenty of all-time greats that made their legend at the Bernabeu.
On 12 occasions, a Real Madrid player has won the Ballon d’Or – a record they share with old rivals Barcelona. But eight different Madrid players have won the Ballon d’Or, which is an outright record.
Here are the eight legendary names that won football’s most prestigious individual award whilst representing the La Liga giants.
Alfredo Di Stefano (1957, 1959)
The Argentinian – who made 31 appearances for Spain – is rightly regarded as one of the greatest forwards in the history of the game, and still almost certainly the most important figure in the grand history of Los Blancos. He remains the benchmark for greatness, which for a club with the prestige of Real Madrid is quite something.
He finished runner-up in France Football’s inaugural award in 1956, with Blackpool’s Stanley Matthews coming out on top. But he won it by a landslide the following year, having played a pivotal role in Madrid retaining the newly-devised European Cup and won it a second time in 1959.
Di Stefano remained at Madrid throughout their five-in-a-row triumphs in Europe, scoring a hat-trick in the last final in 1960, a 7-3 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, in which Ferenc Puskas – curiously absent from this list – scored the other four.
Raymond Kopa (1958)
The iconic French midfielder was at Madrid for the middle three of their five-in-a-row, having featured for Reims as they were defeated by Di Stefano’s Madrid in the 1956 final.
He’d moved to Madrid by the time he was voted as Europe’s third-best footballer that year, finishing joint-third in 1957 and runner-up in 1959.
1958 was his year, having been voted the worthy winner of the golden ball after featuring alongside Di Stefano in the 3-2 victory over Milan in that year’s European Cup final.
In 2016, France Football published a Ballon d’Or reevaluation to the years in which only Europeans were eligible, offering Pele as a worthy alternative to the Kopa and Di Stefano in ’58 and ’59 – as well as in a further five years. The original winners still stand, officially.
Luis Figo (2000)
One that still stings over in Barcelona.
The Portuguese superstar had established himself as the best player in the world…
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