5 stars you probably didn’t know played for Real Madrid

In football, the fortunes of a player or a team can change at any moment. However, the one thing that you can bet on is Real Madrid possessing a squad full of superstars. They have the resources to sign any player on the planet or replace any outgoing superstar.

Since the Real Madrid squad is always full of superstars, it is often easy to forget some of the lesser known players who played for the club even in a title-winning season.

Take the case of Samuel Eto’o or Esteban Cambiasso for example. If it wasn’t for their hugely successful careers, most football fans would never have realised that they played for Real Madrid.

Unlike Eto’o and Cambiasso, there are many other renowned star players who represented Real Madrid at the youth level or the senior team in a few games which you probably didn’t know about.

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#5. Juanfran

Juanfran played six times for Real Madrid's senior side

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are archrivals but there are seven players currently at either club who have played for both sides at the youth level or senior level and one of them is the veteran Juanfran.

Juanfran started out as a winger at the Real Madrid academy and he represented the Real Madrid B team in 56 league games scoring seven goals. He made his first-team debut way back in January 2004 as a substitute in a 2-1 win over Villarreal.

The Spaniard made five more appearances for the senior team and spent the 2005/06 season on loan at Espanyol where he won the Copa del Rey before joining Osasuna on a permanent deal ahead of the 2006/07 season.

He went on to play 153 games for Osasuna scoring 13 goals in four and a half seasons before returning to Madrid albeit with Atletico. He has been with the club since and has played 342 games for them while winning seven trophies.

Interestingly, in the 2016 Champions League final against his former club, he was the only player who missed from the spot for either team.

#4. Alvaro Negredo

Negredo did not represent the senior team in a competitive fixture

Alvaro Negredo is a product of the Rayo Vallecano academy and he even played for the club’s senior team in the Segunda Division B before switching to Real Madrid Castilla in 2005.

Negredo scored 22 goals in 65 games for the Castilla team and his good run of form prompted first-team coach, Fabio Capello, to name him on the substitutes bench for a few Copa del Rey games but he never made an appearance for the club in a competitive game.

He was sold to La Liga newcomers, Almeria, in 2007 with a buyback clause and in two seasons, he scored 32 goals for them before Real signed him back for €5 million using the buyback clause.

However, he was sold to Sevilla for €15 million in the same summer as Manuel Pellegrini couldn’t guarantee him opportunities with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain, Raul and Ruud van Nistelrooy already at the club.

Interestingly, Pellegrini signed the player for Man City in 2013 and Negredo played a part in helping the club win the Premier League title and League Cup in 2013/14.

#3. Filipe Luis

Luis spent an entire season playing for the Real Madrid B team

Atletico Madrid’s veteran left-back, Filipe Luis, has also played for the club’s archrivals Real Madrid. However, unlike Juanfran, Luis only played for the Real Madrid B team and never made an appearance for the senior team.

Luis started his professional career with Figueirense in Brazil before moving to Europe for the very first time to join Ajax. However, he left the Dutch club without making a first-team appearance and returned to South America to play for Uruguayan club Rentistas.

Immediately after moving to Rentistas who had a partnership with his agent Juan Figer, Luis was loaned out to Real Madrid and he spent the entire season with the B team.

At the end of the 2005/06 season, his move to Real was not made permanent because of Rentistas’ high asking price but the player returned to Spain the following season to play for Deportivo La Coruna on a two-year loan before the move was made permanent.

#2. Fabinho

Fabinho played 14 minutes for the senior team and assisted a goal

Liverpool’s Fabinho started his career as a right-back and he still operates in that role for the national team. He started his career at Fluminense before moving to Europe for the first time to play for Rio Ave in Portugal.

After only one month with Rio Ave, he joined Real Madrid Castilla on a season-long loan and played 30 games for the side scoring two goals. Right at the very end of the season, he played 14 minutes for the first team in place of Fabio Coentrao and assisted Real’s sixth goal scored by Angel Di Maria in a 6-2 win over Malaga at the Bernabeu.

Fabinho spent the next two seasons on loan at Monaco and he converted to a defensive midfielder at the Ligue 1 club. He joined the club permanently in 2015 and spent three more seasons there while also playing a crucial role in their Ligue 1 triumph in 2016/17.

#1. Saul Niguez

Saul Niguez is the third present Atletico Madrid player in this list but unlike Juanfran and Filipe Luis who played for the Real Madrid B team, Saul left Real at the age of 13.

The Spaniard joined Real Madrid’s youth setup in 2006 aged 11 and played there for two seasons before switching to cross-city rivals Atletico Madrid. He made his debut for the senior team in March 2012 aged 17 years and 108 days in a Europa League match and a year later, he made his La Liga debut.

Saul spent the 2013/14 season on loan at Rayo Vallecano before returning to Atletico and establishing himself as a key first team player. On 7 February 2015, he scored his team’s second goal in an eventual 4-0 win over Real Madrid with a spectacular bicycle kick and wrote his name in the derby folklore.

The 24-year-old Spaniard who has played 15 times for the national team was linked with a return to Real Madrid recently but he said it would be unthinkable for him to cross the divide.

Edited by Sripad