La Liga has served as the stage for the finest individual talent the game has ever produced. For the better part of seven decades, the world’s greatest players have chosen Spain’s top flight as their canvas, and the results have been extraordinary. Selecting only ten from such company demands difficult omissions — but those who make this list are beyond legitimate argument.

1. 1

   Lionel Messi

   Barcelona · Argentina

   The greatest footballer in the history of La Liga and, for many, of the sport itself. Messi spent seventeen seasons at Barcelona, scoring 474 league goals and winning ten Liga titles, a record that no player is likely to approach. His balance, close control, vision and finishing belonged to a different category from even his most gifted contemporaries.

2. 2

   Alfredo Di Stéfano

   Real Madrid · Argentina/Spain

   The man who made Real Madrid what they became, Di Stéfano won five successive European Cups and eight Liga titles between 1953 and 1964. He was an all-terrain footballer of staggering range — centre-forward, midfielder and defensive organiser in a single match — and the finest player the European game had seen when he arrived from River Plate.

3. 3

   Cristiano Ronaldo

   Real Madrid · Portugal

   Cristiano Ronaldo scored 311 goals in 292 La Liga appearances for Real Madrid, a ratio of extraordinary efficiency for a wide forward who evolved into the game’s most complete goalscorer. He won four Champions League titles at the Bernábeu and forced persistent comparisons with Messi that lit up an entire era of the sport.

4. 4

   Ronaldinho

   Barcelona · Brazil

   At his peak between 2004 and 2006, Ronaldinho was simply the most joyful and devastating footballer on the planet. Two Liga titles and the 2006 Champions League came during a period at Barcelona that captivated supporters worldwide; his performance at the Bernábeu in 2005 was greeted with a standing ovation from the home crowd.

5. 5

   Xavi Hernández

   Barcelona · Spain

   The purest expression of tiki-taka football, Xavi spent seventeen seasons at Barcelona playing passes with a metronome’s precision and a chess player’s foresight. Eight Liga titles and four Champions Leagues accumulate into a trophy record that underscores his status as the defining central midfielder of his generation.

6. 6

   Raúl González

   Real Madrid · Spain

   For a decade, Raúl was the soul of Real Madrid: a captain of rare conviction, a scorer of crucial goals and the most complete Spanish forward La Liga had produced. He won three Champions League titles and six Liga championships, and his 228 league goals stood as the club record until Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival.

7. 7

   Andrés Iniesta

   Barcelona · Spain

   Andrés Iniesta moved through the tightest defensive shapes as if the opponents were mannequins, combining close control and vision in a way that no other midfielder of his era could replicate. Nine Liga titles and four Champions Leagues accompanied a World Cup winner’s medal that he clinched with the most famous goal in Spanish football history.

8. 8

   Iker Casillas

   Real Madrid · Spain

   Casillas spent sixteen seasons as Real Madrid’s first-choice goalkeeper and was, for a period in the early 2000s, inarguably the finest in the world. His reflexes, composure under pressure and capacity for the extraordinary save made him the foundation upon which two Champions League-winning sides were built.

9. 9

   Fernando Hierro

   Real Madrid · Spain

   Fernando Hierro captained Real Madrid through five Liga titles and two Champions League triumphs, combining imperious defensive reading with a goalscoring return that made him one of the most complete central defenders the league has seen. His free-kick technique and aerial authority added a dimension to Real Madrid’s play that few defenders of any era have matched.

10. 10

    Luis Suárez

    Barcelona · Uruguay

    In his first full La Liga season, Luis Suárez scored 40 league goals, a figure bettered only by Messi in the competition’s history. His combination of power, technique, movement and sheer will to score made him the perfect foil for Messi, and his contribution to Barcelona’s 2014–15 treble was immeasurable.

A LeaguePaper editorial ranking — opinion, offered for argument.