Obviously the superstars of Real Madrid and Barcelona are going to dominate a list of the best midfielders in LaLiga, but the entire top 10 list doesn’t belong to the biggest two clubs in Spanish football alone. Here are the top 10 midfielders you need to know in 2024, including some stars from Real Sociedad and Villarreal.
10. Brais Mendez, Real Sociedad
Brais Mendez has always been a great player, and he should have received more acclaim at Celta Vigo, where he was an excellent partner in crime for the legendary Iago Aspas.
In 2022, Brais got a chance to break out of his shell a little more on a competitive Real Sociedad side that was stacked to the brim with underrated talents and top LaLiga stars in the midfield and the attack.
During the first half of the season, Mendez was as good as any attacking midfielder in LaLiga, and he would finish his first season at La Real with 8 goals and 4 assists along with 1.7 tackles per game.
Mendez’s level has remained high since then, and he is one of the best and most intelligent all-around midfielders in LaLiga, with his importance to La Real only increasing after Mikel Merino’s move to Arsenal.
9. Dani Parejo, Villarreal
Hopefully Dani Parejo gets to stay on the list of the best LaLiga midfielders for a couple of more years, because he’s been a mainstay as the best center midfielder in Spanish football who doesn’t play for either Real Madrid or Barcelona.
Parejo is a conductor and the football pitch his orchestra. The former Valencia man was world-class for years for the Bats despite being highly underrated, and he continued that trend after being forced to move to local rivals Villarreal due to the incompetency of Valencia’s ownership.
Now 35, Parejo is on his last legs but is still one of the most accurate passers in the league and can come up with a great goal when needed. Parejo recorded at least five assists in a league season for the eighth time in his career last season.
8. Luka Modric, Real Madrid
A former Ballon d’Or winner during the peak of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, Luka Modric has done so much for both club and country, building a resume that makes him arguably the greatest midfielder of all time.
Longevity is one thing, but to be this good at the age of 39 is downright absurd. You wouldn’t bet against the Croatian magician becoming a true unicorn as a 40-year-old, world-class box-to-box midfielder.
Modric isn’t an every-game starter for Real Madrid at this stage of his career, but when the lights are their brightest in the Champions League, he is still Real’s best midfielder in the big games, even on a team that includes the likes of Fede Valverde, Jude Bellingham, and Aurelien Tchouameni.
“Lukita” is a father figure to many players on Real Madrid and is still an all-around monster who assisted six times in the 2023/24 season despite playing well under 2,000 LaLiga minutes.
7. Dani Olmo, Barcelona
Barcelona didn’t necessarily need to sign another attacking midfielder, but they decided to sacrifice Ilkay Gundogan and any other potential signings in order to spend a minimum of 55 million euros on one of the standouts of Euro 2024.
Olmo is a product of Barcelona’s academy but really made a name for himself at the Champions League level for RB Leipzig, continuing the tradition of the Bundesliga side fielding excellent technicians in the No. 10 role.
He has hit it off in the new Hansi Flick system at Barcelona, showing that a high football IQ beats athleticism most days of the week. Olmo is even more dangerous in Barcelona than in Leipzig with three goals in three games already.
6. Eduardo Camavinga, Real Madrid
There’s no doubt that on pure ability alone, Eduardo Camavinga has what it takes to be the very best midfielder in LaLiga and at least give his Real Madrid teammates like Jude Bellingham a run for their money.
Camavinga isn’t the finished product yet, but even in his first season with the Merengue club in 2021/22, he was a difference-maker. Real Madrid don’t win the Champions League without Camavinga shutting down business and putting it all on the line in the dying minutes of big games against elite clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City.
He has been one of the top midfielders in European football since he was a 16-year-old at Rennes balling out as Ligue 1’s premier ball-winner in big games against PSG.
Camavinga is the epitome of a box-to-box midfielder with his ridiculous tackling quality, non-stop motor, high-end speed and acceleration, and well above-average technical ability. Remember, he’s still only 21.
5. Pedri, Barcelona
Although Pedri has been a victim of the media hype getting out of hand and has been hurt even more by a slew of nagging injuries, not even the most cynical Real Madrid fan can deny that Pedri is one of the top midfielders in LaLiga, even considering the way injuries have impacted him.
Pedri is an irresistible force with the ball at his feet and is one of the best dribblers in the world in tight spaces. He has scored five goals in a league season just once and has never offered more than three assists, but although the box score stats may be underwhelming, they obfuscate the full story.
And the full story is that Pedri does so much before the actual goal or assist to set up the chance. He is one of the best progressive ball-carriers and passers in world football, and he never stops taking defenders on, perhaps to his own detriment when viewing the mounting injury history.
4. Aurelien Tchouameni, Real Madrid
Aurelien Tchouameni has what it takes to become the best No. 6 in world football. The young French midfielder controls possession and makes pinpoint passes, flashing the kind of deep-lying playmaking quality that Real Madrid so sorely miss from the retired Toni Kroos.
As a defensive presence, it doesn’t get much better than Tchouameni at the base of the midfield in the current landscape of world football, because Tchou is so good defensively that during the 2023/24 season when Real Madrid were down to scraps at center back, he looked like the best defender in LaLiga at times.
With his pinpoint passing and even dangerous shooting from range, Tchouameni is able to impact the final score of matches, too. Real Madrid do need Tchouameni to take that next step towards true superstardom by being more consistent, and if he can do that, he can usurp Martin Zubimendi as the best holding midfielder in Spanish football.
3. Martin Zubimendi, Real Sociedad
It’s fairly obvious to see why Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal, and several other elite European clubs are desperate to pluck Martin Zubiemendi from Real Sociedad in the 2025 transfer windows.
Real Sociedad have produced some special players over the years, including current Newcastle striker Alexander Isak and Arsenal center midfielder Mikel Merino, but Zubi may be the best of all of them when considering how rare world-class No. 6’s are.
Zubimendi is a strong defender who wins possession consistently and effectively screens the back four. There are better deep-lying playmakers than Zubimendi, but he is competent in this regard and is mostly utilized to be the initial progressive passer rather than the assist provider.
He makes players like Brais Mendez and Takefusa Kubo that much more effective because of all the dirty work he does defensively and in the progressive phases of La Real’s build up. Any team would be lucky to have him.
2. Fede Valverde, Real Madrid
In each subsequent season since Zinedine Zidane initially made him a starter at Real Madrid in the 2019/20 season, Fede Valverde has consistently raised his standard to become one of the best midfielders in the world in any role or capacity.
Now in his prime at 26, Valverde can do it all for a Real Madrid. Just as he was in 2019/20 when he helped Real win LaLiga as a newcomer, Fede is a ball of energy who dominates players physically as a ball-carrier and ball-winner, playing the game as if he had the vital capacity of two players.
Valverde, in particular, has improved his game considerably as a passer in the final third, registering a career high seven assists in the 2023/24 LaLiga season. And in 2024/25, he has been Real’s best overall player, outshining hyped forwards Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior.
Perhaps one of the best examples at the elite level of how much hard work can change a player, Valverde has nothing but heart and desire and has done everything possible to become the leader he dreamed of being for Real Madrid.
1. Jude Bellingham, Real Madrid
Although Fede may be closer than the average fan thinks, there is really no question that Jude Bellingham is the best midfielder in LaLiga, and he was the best midfielder in LaLiga even before he stepped foot at the Santiago Bernabeu, by virtue of being a box-to-box monster for Borussia Dortmund.
After nearly carrying a subpar Dortmund to the Bundesliga title in the 2022/23 season, Bellingham benefited from a much stronger supporting cast at Real Madrid, winning LaLiga and the Champions League in his maiden campaign while nearly winning the Pichichi trophy as Spain’s top goal-scorer despite being a midfielder.
Bellingham was a world-class No. 8 in the Bundesliga who became a world-class No. 10 at Real Madrid, making brilliant runs into the box and finishing like a striker, proving to be both the answer to Karim Benzema’s departure and the long-awaited goal-scoring midfielder Real spent years searching for.
Jude’s goal-scoring record shrouded his world-class tackling and defensive work, as well as his strong playmaking and ball-carrying. He has no glaring weaknesses to his game and, at 21 years old, is only getting stronger technically and tactically.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.