Real Madrid is a household name when it comes to football. Your presence on the fan side or the rival side is a different matter, but when it is about football, it is surely about Real Madrid.
And why not? The club defines the institution that modern football has become. They are the most successful club in the history of the sport, having won everything there is to win under the sky.
Clearly, owing to the success they have earned, they amass support from numerous fans. A lot of fans. In every nook of the world, you will find a Real Madrid fan, no matter how far they are from Madrid or whether they have visited the Santiago Bernabéu. Global outreach has erased that criterion of fandom.
But this is about fans not like you and me, but fans who themselves have fans. Fans who have a public profile to maintain. Fans who shape the world as we see it.
We are talking about celebrities who are known to be avid fans of Real Madrid, and boy, oh boy, do Real Madrid have a lot of those. How many of these names do you actually know are fans of Real Madrid?
5 celebrities that you didn’t know supported Real Madrid
1. Julio Iglesias
Widely recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world, having sold more than 300 million records worldwide, Iglesias is a big-time Real Madrid fan, and a few would know that he even played for the club at one point.
Yes, Iglesias, before commencing his music career, was a budding goalkeeper in Real Madrid Fabrica. He played in the Segunda Division until 1963, when he met a serious car accident that ended his hopes of donning the Madrid crest for the senior team.
The accident left Iglesias unable to walk for about two years. While in the hospital, a nurse handed him a guitar as therapy to recover hand dexterity, and that is when Iglesias discovered his love and talent for music. From thereon, he had to leave his professional football hopes behind and instead pursued a legendary music career.
In 2015, during a press conference releasing his new album, Iglesias showed support for Cristiano Ronaldo and admitted that he was a fan of the Portuguese legend. When asked about other stars like Neymar or Messi, he said, “Everyone is good, although I actually prefer Real Madrid.”
2. Magnus Carlsen
Probably the most well-known and successful chess grandmaster of this generation, Carlsen is outrightly vocal about his fandom for Real Madrid. And this fandom is not new or PR-related but stems from passion and actual love of the club.
Carlsen is a big fan of football itself. You must be living under a rock if you haven’t come across the video where, during a chess event, Carlsen chose to ditch the chessboard and asked for a football to juggle on the terrace as a way to get his head into the game. Not to mention that his volleys against the wall and juggling were pretty solid.
Such is his admiration for Los Blancos that he was invited for an honorary kickoff for a Real Madrid vs Valladolid game in 2013. On social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Carlsen often posts his thoughts. Last year, when Madrid won the Champions League for the fifteenth time, Magnus posted, “Winning is a way of life. It’s in your blood. On the biggest stage, you just can’t not win. You have to. Hala Madrid.”
But he also said something that Real Madrid fans may not like entirely: “My Real Madrid fandom sort of predates the Ronaldo era. I always liked Ronaldo, but I always kind of thought Messi was better.”
He then went on to claim that in an interview with Real Madrid, he was asked specifically to say that his favourite player was Ronaldo.
"The only thing is that they were going to do an interview and they were going to ask me who my favourite player was. I said somebody else, I think it was Isco at that point, and they were like: ‘Okay, take two, now you say Ronaldo.’ So for them it was very important, but it wasn’t that huge to me.”
3. Bryan Cranston
“Jesse, you asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. Neither, I’m in the empire business.”
No words could better capture Real Madrid and Cranston in one sentence. Cranston, apart from being one of the world’s best actors, is an avid sports fan.
Back in 2021, the Breaking Bad actor visited the Santiago Bernabeu, where he was given an honorary reception by the club’s management.
Standing in the VIP box at the Bernabeu, the veteran actor said, “It’s my first visit to Madrid. And to see the Real Madrid team is quite an honour.”
Later the same day, Cranston was presented with a customised Real Madrid shirt from president Florentino Perez himself.
4. Khabib Nurmagomedov
Some would call him the greatest MMA fighter of all time, having retired with a record of 29-0, meaning no losses in his entire career. Khabib, like Magnus Carlsen, is also a big-time Real Madrid fan who is extremely vocal about it.
Like any other fan, he is known to take playful jibes at persons connected to rival clubs. In a notorious video clip, after the 2025 Champions League final, Khabib joined PSG manager Luis Enrique, who has also managed Barcelona in the past, during celebrations, and said to the manager, “Let’s go. One, two, three - Hala Madrid!” Playfully poking the Spaniard.
In another video, Khabib was attended by some young fans, wherein he refused to take photos with one who said that he was a Barcelona fan. The former MMA champion would not allow the boy to have a photo with him until he forced him to say “Hala Madrid.”
That’s a die-hard fan for you right there.
5. Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso is arguably the greatest Formula One driver of all time. I do not watch the sport, but friends tell me that he was and still is one of the best drivers ever out there.
And the fact that he, too, is a Real Madrid fan is not hidden in the slightest. In fact, his love was reciprocated by the club when he was conferred with an honorary membership by Florentino Perez. During the ceremony, the F1 legend said, “I’m always up to date with what is happening at Real Madrid. My father instilled in me the values of the club, and since my childhood I have enjoyed Real Madrid enormously. I am another member of this great club, and I’m very honored and proud.”
He has also expressed that he was born to be a Real Madrid fan and has said that he ranks Cristiano Ronaldo above Lionel Messi. He also mentioned that he is a fan of Marcelo and Casemiro.