Real Madrid's 5 most influential players of All Time

Real Madrid. Mighty, mighty Real Madrid.

Over the past century, no club has dominated the world's footballing scene quite like Real Madrid - arguably the biggest football entity in the world, Kings of Europe more times than anyone else, and all-around footballing behemoth.

So many great players have come and gone through the grand doors of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu and this list does not purport to rank them on the basis of who is the better football... rather with a combination of off-and-on field contributions, we look to see who's had the most influence in making Real Madrid the mammoth footballing brand that it is today:

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#5 Iker Casillas

San Iker with the trophies he accrued during his time at Madrid

As the story goes, Iker Casillas was called up to the senior squad for the first-time whilst on the way to attending a school exam. He was 16.

Three years later he was in goal as Madrid won the UEFA Champions League for the eighth time. And he would protect his club's goalposts with the fervent dedication of a Saint.

San Iker. Saint Iker.

He was the counter-weight to the Galactico-era, a local boy come good, a fan who became a hero, arguably the greatest product of La Fabrica and the man who held sway within the Madrid dressing room for large parts of the 2000s. Even as a young man, he was the embodiment of the fans - along with Raul and Guti, their emotional connect with the team, their soul clad in white - and the influence he had in the club's history can never be underestimated.

One of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he was everything that was good about Madrid - and as he showed during his last couple of years everything that was bad about the club.

#4 David Beckham

David Beckham was the gorgeous, ugly, pinnacle of Perez's great Galactico era

Hard-working, consistent, and possessed of God's right-foot, David Beckham the footballer was a very good one.

Handsome, charming, and as marketable as Brad Pitt, David Beckham the brand was... phew!... quite something else.

"How ugly is Ronaldinho?! There was no point buying him, it wasn't worth it. He's so ugly that he'd sink you as a brand. Between Ronaldinho and Beckham, I'd go for Beckham a hundred times. Just look how handsome Beckham is, the class he has, the image. The whole of Asia has fallen in love with us because of Beckham." - an unnamed board member of Real Madrid C.F.

David Beckham was the pinnacle of Florentino Perez's Galactico-era, the absolute showpiece footballer; a man bought without consideration as to what he may or may not bring to the team.

The Beckham saga was Real Madrid in a nutshell - move on their effective, underrated defensive midfielder (Claude Makelele) to make way for a right winger (when there was a better one already in town - Luis Figo) purely to build the brand in an untapped area of the world.

Beckham came, won one La Liga, wrecked the balance of the team, and converted everyone in China, Japan, and the entire fast-east to Real Madrid fans.

Now, that's influential.

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo - The King of Madrid

When someone rocks up and scores 422 goals in 412 matches for your club, fair chances are that he'll end up being a bonafide club legend... And they don't really make them more legendary than Cristiano Ronaldo, do they?

It's not just the stats, though, that guarantee Real Madrid's highest-ever goal scorer (and he's not done yet, not nearly) a place on this list. It's what those goals have brought them... equality (and sometimes superiority) with Barcelona during arguably the Catalan's greatest era and with Lionel Messi.

Barcelona and Lionel Messi should have taken over the world - in terms of both footballing achievements and commercial success - but Madrid have matched them step-for-step, and that's all down to the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo just does not give up.

Without him, this last decade would have been oh, so different for Los Blancos.

#2 Santiago Bernabeu

When they name a stadium after you, you know you've done something right. Santiago Bernabeu (far right)

Without Santiago Bernabeu Yeste, there wouldn't be a Real Madrid. Not as we know it.

He was a fan turned youth academy graduate turned starting forward turned director of football turned assistant manager turned manager turned President; he was Real Madrid.

While before the Wars (World War II and the Spanish Civil War), the Madrid he played for was a respectable club and one of the best Spain, what he found during the late '40's after General Franco had prevailed was a club that was dead for all intents and purposes.

With the government supporting Atletico Madrid (then Atletico Aviacion), there was no financial and infrastructural support and what he achieved during his presidency is nothing short of legendary.

He built the stadium that now bears his name (at the time, the press called it "too much of a stadium for so little a club"), restructured the club entirely giving sectional independence and technical expertise, helped create the European Cup (now, the UEFA Champions League) and signed players that would transform the club from a mediocre middle-table club to arguably the biggest in the whole wide world.

And it's one of those players who is no.1 on our list.

#1 Alfredo di Stefano

Alfredo Di Stefano celebrating yet another of his many Real Madrid goals

Alfredo di Stefano was the OG, the Original Galactico.

Having successfully outmuscled Barcelona out of the deal (still the greatest transfer hijacking of all time) Santiago Bernabeu's Real Madrid would go on to build a footballing dynasty around the inimitable footballing talent and larger-than-life persona of the great Argentine forward.

A goalscorer-cum-playmaker extraordinaire, Di Stefano helped Madrid through their single most successful period - winning 5 European Cups and 8 League titles in the span of a decade... while helping them play the kind of swashbuckling, attacking football that Madrid fans (and even neutrals for that matter) have come to take for granted as part and parcel of the Madrid Way.

In terms of what he did on the field, and how much he helped shape the Real Madrid brand (both on and off the pitch), Real Madrid have never seen someone quite as influential as Alfredo di Stefano