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“Mes que un club” is how FC Barcelona is referred to by their supporters, which literally means “more than a club”. Barca, as they are popularly known as, has always stood for the pride of the Catalonia region of Spain, which continues to have a controversial political existence.
Some of the unfulfilled political and socio-economic ambitions of the Catalans have been fulfilled on the football pitch thanks to Barcelona Football Club. They are also known as Blaugrana because of their blue and red home strip and remain one of the best-supported clubs in the world.
Since their inception in 1899, Barcelona have been one of the premier clubs in Spain as well as worldwide. They have had a bitter rivalry with Real Madrid and the clash between those two Spanish giants is known as “El Clasico”.
Barcelona has managed to win 25 LaLiga titles and 5 European Cups in their glorious history and continue to be one of the top clubs in the world.
Quite naturally, a lot of legendary footballers have played for the club over the decades. Those footballers have enriched Barcelona immensely and contributed to their success.
Therefore, it is very difficult to pick 5 top players from the plethora of greats who have played for Barca. Still, we would like to do the same in this article:
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#5 Laszlo Kubala
Kubala was born in Hungary, but also had the citizenship of erstwhile Czechoslovakia and Spain.
He got settled in Barcelona after having retired from football and breathed his last in his adopted home in 2002. However, he has got a mention in this article because of his exploits for Barcelona as a player from 1951 to 1961.
Kubala was a striker who was very prolific for Barcelona and scored 152 goals in 219 matches for them.
He was known for his opportunism inside the penalty box and shooting abilities. He won 4 LaLiga titles with Barca in the 1950s in spite of the fact that they had to contend with the fearsome Real Madrid side featuring the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Claudio Gento, Jose Santamaria and Ferenc Puskas.
Kubala became a symbol of Barca during his playing career and also finished 5th in the 1957 Ballon d’Or standings. As a result, he truly remains one of their finest players.
#4 Carles Puyol
Carles Puyol was another Barcelona great who played for the club from 1999 to 2014.
He began his career as a right-back but got converted into a centre-back soon enough due to his wonderful reading of the game. He had partners like Rafael Marquez and Gerard Pique at the heart of the defence and went on to win 3 UEFA Champions League and 6 LaLiga titles for the club.
Puyol was excellent man-marker with great tackling skills. He was also very strong in the air and scored quite a few goals from set-pieces.
Puyol was also a genuine big-match player and performed brilliantly in each of the 3 Champions League finals he played in. He neutralized Thierry Henry brilliantly in the 2006 Champions League final against Arsenal.
All in all, the curly-haired defender played 593 matches for Barcelona and scored 18 goals. His importance can be underlined by the simple fact that the club has won only one Champions League title since his retirement in 2014.
#3 Andres Iniesta
Andres Iniesta is definitely among the greatest attacking midfielders the game has seen. He was instrumental in Barcelona's unparalleled success from 2005 to 2015 and remained one of their best players.
He was a player of silken grace, great passing range and enviable dribbling skills. His positional play was also superb and he created numerous opportunities for the forwards with his consummate ball-skills.
Very few players have actually fondled a football as Iniesta did in his prime. He could play magical one-twos, incisive through balls and audacious flicks to build up moves one after the other.
There have also been very few players who possessed his elegance and nonchalance. Iniesta scored 57 goals in 674 matches for the club in 16 seasons as he helped them win 4 UEFA Champions League and 9 LaLiga titles.
There was always something more to the Spaniard than mere stats. The elegant midfielder came very close to winning the Ballon d'Or, having finished runners-up in 2010.
#2 Xavi Hernandez
Xavi was another symbolic player for Barcelona who played for them between 1998 and 2015.
He was a magnificent central midfielder and remains one of the best footballers ever to have played in that position. He was unparalleled in controlling the tempo of the game with his deft touches and intelligent passing. There have been very few footballers who had his sense and understanding of time and space.
Xavi experienced a rough phase in his initial days as a Barcelona footballer as they played second fiddle to a dominant and brilliant Real Madrid team.
However, the tables were soon turned and Barca started their ascent to the top under coaches like Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola. Xavi was the engine for the side for more than a decade and pulled the strings very efficiently from the midfield.
He won 4 Champions League and 8 LaLiga titles with the club. He also remains one of the best passers of all time and would go down as one of the best players to have played for Barca.
#1 Lionel Messi
Many call Lionel Messi the finest footballer of all time with very good reasons.
It is very difficult to ascertain whether he is a better player than Pele or Diego Maradona, but it can be said without any doubt that he has very few equals in the history of the game in terms of statistics.
Even the intangible attributes of his game are right up there with the very best football has ever seen. He is one of the best passers and dribblers of all time, is a brilliant goals-scorer and can destroy any defence single-handedly on most days.
Messi has done all the great things as a Barcelona player. He has scored in Champions League finals against Manchester United, destroyed Real Madrid with a fantastic hat-trick in their memorable 6-2 win in 2009 and won the Ballon d’Or 5 times.
He has also scored 573 goals from 657 matches for Barca and won 4 Champions League and 9 LaLiga titles with them. To sum it all up, he has consistently remained among the world’s best since his debut for the senior team in 2004 and is quite possibly the most successful footballer of all time in club football.
