Barcelona stand tall as one of the most historic and respected clubs in world football.
When a player dreams of making it big in this sport, Barcelona and Real Madrid tend to be the two clubs they choose between. Joining one of these two sides is the safest bet to become a true global phenomenon and a Ballon d’Or winner.
La Blaugrana have a rich history, but their most impressive period came in the late 2000s and early 2010s when manager Pep Guardiola helped assemble the most unstoppable juggernaut in perhaps the entire history of football.
With an aesthetic style of play adhering to Johan Cruyff’s principles, Barcelona were in irresistible control of their opponents, while the best player the game has ever seen, Lionel Messi, put defenses on strings with his magic.
It is, therefore, thoroughly unsurprising that the majority of the best Barcelona players in history have come through the ranks more recently. Let’s rank the top 10 players to ever play for La Blaugrana.
10. Gerard Piqué
It may come as a surprise to some people, but no defender has earned more caps for Barcelona in their history than Gerard Piqué.
Maybe his career with the club would have been better off ending sooner, but his recent exploits should not prevent him from being rated as one of the best players in the history of the club.
Piqué was one of the best center backs in the world at a time when the likes of Sergio Ramos were also dominating Spanish and world football. The former Manchester United man truly found his home and became immediately valued by La Blaugrana for his sharp reading of the game and excellence on the ball – the latter trait is of particular importance to Barça.
An eight-time LaLiga champion, seven-time Copa del Rey winner, and three-time Champions League winner, Piqué is one of the most successful center backs in world football history.
In many ways, peak Piqué is the prototype of what everyone wants in a modern center back. He was fast, direct, effective on the ball, competent in the air, and intelligent off the ball.
9. Pep Guardiola
A nearly flawless deep-lying playmaker, Pep Guardiola the player helped set the foundation for Barcelona that he would later build on to even greater success as Pep Guardiola the manager.
Guardiola is an institution of his own in Catalunya and one of the most important figures in Barça’s history. The argument can be made that only Lionel Messi and Johan Cruyff himself surpass Guardiola’s overall impact when combining his quality as a player and coach.
A six-time LaLiga champion, Guardiola was a pivotal force in Barcelona putting Spanish football in a chokehold with four straight league titles to begin the 90s.
That marked Barça entering the conversation as one of the truly elite clubs in the world, and it is a status they have never come close to losing.
In 1991/92, he helped Barça win their first Champions League title, establishing himself as one of the players to watch in world football.
8. Ronaldinho
It may be a surprise to see Ronaldinho rank so low on this list, given he is one of the most uniquely gifted footballers to ever grace the pitch and had his best period with Barcelona. However, that speaks to the quality and consistency of the other Barça greats. Ronaldinho being ranked over Guardiola is quite the accomplishment, too, given what Pep achieved as a player.
Nobody can adequately put into words what it was like watching Ronaldinho’s peak with Barcelona, so it may be the actions of Madridistas that sum things up best.
They once gave Ronaldinho a standing ovation at the Santiago Bernabéu – which is rare for them to do for even their own players – because they could not help but admire the way in which he thoroughly dismantled Los Blancos.
Ronaldinho was like that. His genius could sweep opponents away. He was bigger than the moment.
When he pulled off a no-look chipped through pass, left defenders flying off their feet with a shimmy, or bulged the back of the net with a bicycle kick from the heavens, you understood you were watching a once-in-a-lifetime talent.
In 207 matches with La Blaugrana, Ronaldinho scored 94 goals with 70 assists. Those numbers are impressive in their own right, but they were secondary to how Ronaldinho made people feel.
7. Luis Suárez
With all due respect to Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski, it is curious to see people still arguing which one of the three players had the most profound peak. At his best, whether in his brief time for Liverpool or his more extended spell in Barcelona, Luis Suárez was a dominant force who nearly reached Cristiano Ronaldo’s own brilliance at Real Madrid.
Far from just a sidekick to Lionel Messi, Suárez was a footballing genius of his own and a master of the dark arts who brought a different dynamic to La Blaugrana.
MSN’s unforgettable 2014/15 season may have been the pinnacle of their achievements together, but his work in the following season was even more unbelievable.
40 goals and 13 assists in a campaign is, again, the territory players like Cristiano and Lionel were hitting. He then followed that up with two more seasons of at least 25 goals and 12 assists, proving his 2015/16 was no fluke.
If anything, Cristiano and the Madrid three-peat overshadowed just how incredible Suárez was for Barcelona during that period. At any nearly other club, his peak would have been good enough for a sure-fire, top-five finish.
6. Carles Puyol
However, when we discuss Barcelona, we are clearly not simply talking about “any other club”. Lion-hearted defenders like Carles Puyol once roamed the hallowed grounds of the Nou Camp. Few will try to debate Puyol’s place among the pantheon of great center backs. He did not have the talent of a Franz Beckenbauer, Sergio Ramos, or Lucio.
Maybe, though, that’s what made Puyol so much more special and what helped him earn so much respect. There were faster center backs.
There were better players on the ball, like teammate Gerard Piqué. And there were certainly superior athletes to the long-haired Blaugrana captain.
Yet who had Puyol’s heart? Puyol had the fighting spirit and work ethic of a champion, and he imparted that on every single player who joined him in Barcelona.
It’s no coincidence he was the leader of the most dominant club and international sides of the modern game. Plus, before anyone risks selling his quality too short, he was an excellent defender in his own right. It’s just that he becomes a legend because of those intangibles, which are, ultimately, measured in championships.
5. Sergio Busquets
So much of the praise for Barcelona’s great midfielders goes to Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, but, lately, it is has been heartwarming to see more of that adulation go to Sergio Busquets.
Once hated and derided by those outside Barcelona as a lanky, cheap imitation of a holding midfielder, those same critics now must at least begrudgingly acknowledge Busquets’ place in football history as one of the most talented and influential midfielders ever.
Busquets helped change the way the position – and the game itself – was played and even evaluated by those outside of it.
His vision for the pass, setting teammates up in a better place than they were, helped set the tone for everything else that followed in Barcelona.
Despite his wiry frame, Busquets was a physical monster in midfield because of his work ethic and pest-like defending, always in the right place at the right time to break things up.
Even at the end of his career in 2022/23 when many, including Culers, had written Busquets off as washed, he proved the doubters wrong as an asset for the LaLiga title-winning side. Busquets is as much a Barcelona legend as Xavi and Andrés Iniesta.
4. Andrés Iniesta
One of the few players who could challenge Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the world’s three best players, Andrés Iniesta was so good that he even finished second behind only the Argentinian icon in 2010. Iniesta had conquered football for Spain and Barcelona that year, scoring the decisive goal to help La Furia Roja hoist the World Cup.
A more attacking midfielder than Xavi, Iniesta was also adept at controlling play and helping ensure Barcelona never lost control of a match.
Additionally, Iniesta had a keen eye for goal, finishing like a forward in many respects. He could execute a variety of techniques in order to find the back of the net.
Iniesta, though, was at his best when he could be the main playmaker for La Blaugrana.
In one LaLiga season, he registered 16 assists, which is quite the feat for a player who also worked hard enough to average nearly two tackles per game in the Champions League and 1.1 per match in the league.
3. Xavi
While it is understandable for some people to rank Iniesta over Xavi, the reality is that Xavi had an even greater impact on Barcelona. He was able to add goals and assists despite playing in even deeper positions than Iniesta, often being the main orchestrating influence and primary progressor to shift Barça from tight spaces in their own half to breakaway opportunities.
A footballing genius of the Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi ilk, Xavi simply saw the game in ways that nobody else in his position could.
He could use the simplest of turns to unbalance defenders and create angles to explode up the pitch, seemingly running faster than his legs were actually carrying him.
A master of deception, Xavi disguised passed like nobody else, clowning defenses with the slightest change of pace or head feint.
Only Messi has more assists for Barcelona than Xavi’s 184. Now the manager of Barcelona, Xavi, like Guardiola, is building a strong legacy of his own as a coach, having brought the Blaugrana back to the summit of LaLiga after an extremely difficult period. That should be no surprise to anyone, though, as he was quite the coach on the field in his day.
2. Johan Cruyff
Speaking of coaches on the field, Johan Cruyff would be the clear No. 1 legend for just about any other club; it’s just that he happened to play for the club that would eventually host the GOAT.
Cruyff’s vision of the game remains key to Barça’s identity and development, with only simple adaptations to keep it ever-so-relevant in the context of modern football.
The Dutch legend is synonymous with Barcelona as a player, manager, and even executive working with Joan Laporta.
In his playing days, Cruyff won the Ballon d’Or three times, LaLiga, and the Copa del Rey. His most recognizable success may have come with Ajax, but he still accomplished a great deal for La Blaugrana in the handful of seasons that he graced one of the world’s most passionate footballing cities.
If Ronaldinho made everyone feel like a kid again when watching him, Cruyff made the city of Barcelona feel something even more powerful during his time with them.
Cruyff boosted Barça to their first league title in 14 years, setting the stage for their later dominance in the 90s when he would manage them.
He gave Barcelona a sense of belief in themselves that would only be matched decades later by what Messi brought.
1. Lionel Messi
For all the incredible players that have ever suited up for Barcelona over the years, there can be no disputing who the GOAT is. Yes, there are arguments to be made for other footballers when it comes to the overall GOAT debate, but Messi genuinely has the strongest case when looking at his overall career, especially after winning the World Cup.
When it comes to Barcelona, specifically, Messi’s impact is even greater than that of Xavi and Cruyff. It’s not all that close, either, which speaks to Messi’s accomplishments.
He won an unprecedented seven Ballons d’Or, in addition to 10 LaLiga titles and four Champions League crowns.
Because people like to highlight Barça’s recent failures in that competition, they fail to realize just how incredible Messi was in that competition.
To wit, Messi has scored double-digit goals in five different Champions League seasons, which is just about unreachable for any player other than his great rival, Cristiano Ronaldo.
The endless Ronaldo vs. Messi debates shrouded a lot of how great both men truly were at their absolute best, as fans were too busy erroneously trying to tear the other side down.
Messi holds so many records that there is no point in even trying to list them. He mastered the most important skills in world football, making him literally unstoppable.
The way he left Jerome Boateng sprawling on his feet and chipped Manuel Neuer in the 2014/15 season will forever stand the test of time as one of the most iconic goals in football history – and it might not even be one of the top three goals Messi scored in his career.
That’s Messi. He made the impossible seem routine, to the point where so many, mostly outside of Barcelona, took him for granted.
Because Culers have never underappreciated or neglected to praise Messi to the fullest. It’s a shame many other fans were too busy bashing him out of insecurity.
