Greatest Madrid player ever!

Maldini was asked in a recent interview to give his opinion of the greatest player ever for Real Madrid.

he said without doubt it was De Stefano, but he listed in his opinion of the next theee.

He had a list in his sequence of

1. de Stefano
2. Christian Ronaldo
3. Gento
4. Raul

I'm surprised he put Ronaldo that high, and I'm sure there are a few on here that would disagree. But I'm hard pressed to change the list, particularly when he is obviously considering longevity in making his list.

I don't rate CR higher than Ramos let alone Raul

1. Di Stefano
2. Raul
3. Bernabeu

Bernabeu!!! You do realize he was not a player!!!! And you obviously are too young to know of Gento.

Santiago Bernabeu was a player but he didn't actually have a stellar playing career at the club. Nowhere near the greatest player list by any stretch. The Gale (Gento) from all accounts was a fantastic winger and quite possibly one of the best wingers of all time so anyone considering him part of that discussion isn't off.

Personally would have put someone like Puskas for Ronaldo but the latter would definitely be a top 10 in that list for me.

1) Ronaldo
2) Di Stefano
3) Raul

IMO

Yes Bernabeu did play for Madrid, around 50 games, (forgive me for not realizing that as 1911 to 27 is before my time - yes you heard right, I haven't seen all Madrid games!!), but he is renown at the club for transforming the club into a BIG team. He was president for an incredible long tenture from 43 to 78 (35 years) and before that was in club management for 14 years.


I believe Puskas is not there because his timeframe is less than Raul an Di Stefano. However his 8 years is one more than Ronaldo at this point. Too bad, Maldini didn't name 5 as for sure the next one would have been Puskas.

I'm actually surprised to see a list from an Italian who played long after Di Stefano, Gento and Puskas that they even got consideration and especially when you realize practically very little of their games were televised.

10, 20 yeras from now, a kid who is 10-14 years old today is not going to put Puskas or Gento in his list. Cr7 might even be their number 1.

Which is completely understandable but if said kid decides to just read up on Madrid and its history, he or she can clearly see how much Gento has done for the club. The man I think is the only one to experience both the Famous Five and the Ye-ye generation.

An amazing player.