Real Madrid: Ranking the 5 best players of the ’90s
1. FERNANDO HIERRO
There’s a reason why Sergio Ramos longed for the number four shirt upon his transfer to Real Madrid. There’s a reason why the number held a sacred place even before Ramos added to its glory and that reason is Fernando Hierro, one of the best defenders that Real Madrid ever boasted.
The perfect example of local home-grown talent, Hierro joined the youth ranks of Malaga to start his footballing journey. He debuted at the senior level for Valladolid in 1987 with whom he’d face Real Madrid for the very first time. That too in the finals of the Cope del Rey nonetheless. He impressed Real, his prowess was already well known and now Real had seen it for themselves. There was no other way out but to sign this fine talent. He played his football for Real Madrid between 1989 and 2003 and there’s no doubt that his best performances were in the ’90s.
There were a thousand things to adore about Hierro. His buildup plays while playing it out of the back, his tremendous attacking abilities that leave him with 127 Real Madrid goals, and masterful aerial play. Hierro was a fine find for Real Madrid. A pillar in three European Cup wins, Hierro’s involvement in La Septima’s triumph remains a key one. In the finals, he silenced everyone with his masterclass canceling out Del Piero who took the pitch for Juventus.
In a 14 year long career that had 601 official appearances for the club, Hierro won 16 major titles. Three European Cups aside, five league titles, four Super Cups, one Copa del Rey, one European Super Cup, and two Intercontinental Cups make for a wholesome trophy cabinet. A club icon, a versatile footballer, an attacking center-back, and an absolute leadership figure, no doubt Hierro is Ramos’s perfect football ancestor and the best Real Madrid player of the ’90s.
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From here, the club would move to a phase of controversies with Florentino Perez getting elected as the club President and his infamous Galacticos policy coming to play. The club would be further blessed with key arrivals like Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo Nazario alongside local stars like Guti playing some of their best football. But, success in terms of a tenth European Cup will have to wait until the next decade and the 2000s go down as a decade with only one European triumph and mostly a decade of silence building up to the storm that was to follow.