Rank 4, WorldCupStory Club Index 56,055
Real Madrid World Cup XI Dream Team
| Real Madrid | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | Country | WCups | Games | Mins | Goals | Capt | |
| GK | Iker Casillas | Spain | 3 | 15 | 1440 | 0 | 9 |
| RB | Sergio Ramos | Spain | 2 | 10 | 917 | 0 | 0 |
| CB | Uli Stielike | Germany | 1 | 7 | 660 | 0 | 0 |
| CB | Fernando Hierro | Spain | 4 | 12 | 1017 | 5 | 4 |
| LB | Roberto Carlos | Brazil | 3 | 17 | 1560 | 1 | 0 |
| MF | Xabi Alonso | Spain | 1 | 7 | 593 | 0 | 0 |
| MF | Zinedine Zidane | France | 2 | 7 | 649 | 3 | 6 |
| MF | Míchel | Spain | 2 | 9 | 836 | 4 | 0 |
| FW | Jorge Valdano | Argentina | 1 | 7 | 630 | 4 | 0 |
| ST | Davor Suker | Croatia | 1 | 7 | 630 | 6 | 1 |
| ST | Raúl | Spain | 3 | 11 | 716 | 5 | 2 |
| 23 | 109 | 9648 | 28 | 22 |
It was a surprise to find that the player who has played the most world cup minutes as a Real Madrid player is Brazilian, and that their scorer is Croatian. Indeed this dream team sees representation from 6 countries.
Iker Casillas walks into the side as goalkeeper, adding the experience of captaincy from 9 matches. At full back with Sergio Ramos on the right and Roberto Carlos on the left, flanking Fernando Hierro and Uli Stielike. Hierro contributes 5 goals, of which some were from defensive midfield, and Stielike is an extremely species: a German who has missed in a penalty shootout. It was tough on Jose Antonio Camacho to miss out at left back, but the record of Roberto Carlos is indeed special.
The midfield is anchored by Xabi Alonso, despite a lack of goals, allowing Zinedine Zidane and Michel to push ahead and add to the goal tally. David Beckham, despite captaining England in 5 matches and Kaka are notables to miss out on selection.
Jorge Valdano operates somewhere between midfield and the strikers and his 4 goals make him a constant threat. And at the sharp end, we find top scorer, Davor Suker, with 6 goals for Croatia in France 1998, partnering Raul who contributes 5 goals over 3 world cups for Spain. Raul is perhaps lucky to be selected, holding off Fernando Morientes, Emilio Butragueno each with 5 goals and Gonzalo Higuain with 4. Brazil’s Ronaldo only scored 3 world cup goals at Real Madrid, and Cristiano Ronaldo so far only has one.
The team matches closely the stats of Barcelona and is slightly stronger on paper. But I am not entirely convinced by the creative spark, and I would expect both Bayern Munich and Inter Milan to defeat this side.
