Real Madrid – 5 things that come to mind

Another one from the mind series. The first two were the two best players in the world and now I move to clubs—and what better club to start with than Real Madrid?

The Galacticos are the reigning European and World champions. They beat Juventus to win the Champions League last season and recently beat Gremio to lift the Club World Cup. Oh, and they also overcame Barca to win the league last season.

With their Club World Cup glory, they became the most successful club in the world with the most number of recognised titles, which puts them on the way to become the best club of even this century.

Here are the 5 things that come to mind when thinking of Real Madrid...

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#5 Champions League specialists

Yep, this is definitely the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Real Madrid—and why wouldn’t it be? They are the kings of the Champions League. Winning the first five editions of the competition in a row—becoming the first club to ever win back-to-back European Cups—the Blancos set the tone for the future.

There have been droughts, quite a few of them, but the Spanish giants still have this competition in their grip. With 12 titles under their best, they are, by far, the most successful club in the competition with AC Milan their nearest rival with 7 titles—which is still 5 less.

And this is all despite having two major droughts: one from 1966 to 1998 and the other from 2002 to 2014. However, when they win it, they win many all at once—three Champions League titles in the last 4 seasons is a testament to that.

#4 Raul

The Eternal Blanco

The eternal Blanco. One of the reasons why I fell in love with the beautiful game was witnessing Raul play with the ball. His elegance was somewhat unnatural for a striker. He was a rare breed, a forward with a midfielder’s brain—and the heart of a tiger.

And then there is his Madrid connection. Indeed, he was perhaps born to be a Blanco as his name also has ‘Blanco’ in it. Making his debut in 1994, he served the club till 2010 and captained the team after Fernando Hierro left in 2002.

In his time with the Galacticos, he saw many players come and go, but none could take his place when he was at his peak. He helped the club win 6 league titles and 3 Champions League trophies while also scoring 323 goals in that time—becoming their highest ever scorer.

His record, however, was broken by…

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo has won four Ballon d'Ors with Madrid

Even though Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t have the same amount of Madridismo Raul did with the fans, he is still up there among the best players in the club—perhaps THE best player in the history of the club.

Ever since joining the Blancos, he has broken all sorts of records. He is now the club’s best scorer with 422 goals from 415 games and it is unlikely that any other player could break that record in the same timeframe.

That’s not all. Defending the crest of the Blancos, the Portugal captain has won four Ballon d’Ors. On top of that, he has helped the club win three Champions League titles and two La Ligas and Copa Del Rey.

And he is not yet finished as he plans on continuing with the club till his 40s. While this might sound a little far-fetched, he will play at least a year or two—and by then, he will have more records under his belt.

#2 Galacticos

The first Galacticos

Ah, the Zidanes y Pavones or, in other words, a pseudoword to hide the real motive of signing expensive—and often unnecessary—players more for their commercial power than footballing ability.

It is this very policy that made Florentino Perez the president of the club back 2000. It is also for this reason that the construction magnate had to resign from his post as his decision to sell Claude Makelele and let go of Vicente Del Bosque dismantled the core of the club.

The Galactico policy is simple: buy a superstar that not only plays football well but can also attract a lot of money to the club through image rights and jersey sales. This policy brought in the likes of Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, but also failed with Ricardo Kaka.

Nonetheless, Madrid kept at it. While the club might not sign expensive players anymore, they are the ones that began this trend that has seemingly gone out of control with 9 figure signing becoming a thing of normalcy in football.

#1 Best club in the world

Real Madrid are the best in the world

For some, this might be an exaggeration and for some others, it is just a cold and hard fact. While Manchester City might be rivalling the Blancos for this tag, they are yet to win anything significant to be labelled as such.

Madrid, meanwhile, are the current European and Spanish and World champions after beating Juventus, Barcelona and Gremio to those titles, respectively. At one point this year, they were seemingly unbeatable—the kind of form that won them the double.

They might be struggling now, but their Club World Cup triumph has reaffirmed their spot at the top—factually, at least—and that is what matters.

For every club, beating Real Madrid is the goal—that alone shows that the Merengues are the reference point for every team in the world. And what makes one the reference point?

Being the best.