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#4 Isco
Age: 25
Rank: 12th
It takes a quality player to break into the ranks of Real Madrid, and yet there is a strange sense that Isco is a player still somehow undervalued in the game today. Nevertheless, the finished 12th in the Ballon d’Or rankings after helping Los Blancos to a handful of titles, including La Liga and the Champions League.
Indeed, only three of his team-mates – Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric and Ronaldo himself – enjoyed a better placing in the 2017 award.
The 25-year-old joined Madrid in 2013 from Malaga but has featured regularly for the Bernabeu side under a variety of different head coaches since, amassing over 200 performances already and scoring 37 times.
There is little doubt that 2017 was his most successful year to date, though.
While his side, on the whole, have struggled, he has adapted to a variety of different positions across the attacking midfield line and has been largely successful, hitting his stride since the beginning of October by scoring four times in La Liga and adding a couple more assists to boot.
Should Real Madrid recover after a disappointing start to the season, there is a sense that the Andalusian attacker will have a big role to play. He should certainly be seen as a building block to the long-term future of the club.
