Played for both: Barcelona and Real Madrid
The players who appeared for both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, from Josep Samitier in the 1930s to Marcos Alonso, and the few who went straight from one to the other.
Few moves in football carry as much weight as one between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The two clubs have been the poles of Spanish football for a century, and a player who wears both shirts is remembered for it, whether he is welcomed or never forgiven. Yet the list is longer than most fans expect. Goaler's football data holds at least 23 players with official appearances for both clubs, from the 1920s to the 2020s. All appearance and goal figures below are league figures, as listed in each player's English Wikipedia infobox.
Straight across
Most of the 23 took a detour: a season or several somewhere else between the two. Only ten went directly from one club to the other. Eight of them moved from Barcelona to Madrid, and two went the other way.
The first was Josep Samitier, a Barcelona forward of the 1920s who spent thirteen years at the club before joining Real Madrid in 1932. The Brazilian forward Evaristo followed in 1962 after five seasons at Barcelona. Bernd Schuster, the German midfielder, left Barcelona for Madrid in 1988 after eight years at the Camp Nou, and Luis Milla made the same move in 1990. Nando went in 1992, and the Danish playmaker Michael Laudrup in 1994, after five seasons and 166 league games at Barcelona.
Then came the most talked-about move of all. Luís Figo had played five seasons for Barcelona, 172 league games, when Real Madrid signed him in 2000. He played another five seasons in Madrid, 164 league games and 38 goals, before leaving for Inter. The last direct move from Barcelona to Madrid in our data is Javier Saviola's, in 2007, after six years at Barcelona.
Going from Madrid to Barcelona directly is rarer still. The Frenchman Lucien Muller did it in 1965, after three seasons at Real Madrid. Luis Enrique did it in 1996, after five seasons in Madrid, and stayed eight seasons at Barcelona, playing 207 league games.
The long way round
The other thirteen took the scenic route. The goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora played for Barcelona from 1919 to 1922, went back to Espanyol, and only reached Real Madrid in 1930. Ronaldo, the Brazilian striker, had one season at Barcelona in 1996–97, scoring 34 goals in 37 league games, then five years at Inter before Real Madrid signed him in 2002. Samuel Eto'o went the other way: three league appearances for Real Madrid as a teenager, four seasons at Mallorca, then five seasons and 108 league goals at Barcelona.
Gheorghe Hagi and Robert Prosinečki both started in Madrid in the early 1990s and reached Barcelona a few years later, Hagi via Brescia and Prosinečki via Oviedo. Julen Lopetegui made a single league appearance for Real Madrid, then joined Barcelona three years later, via Logroñés. Marcos Alonso, the most recent name on the list, made his Real Madrid debut in 2010 and joined Barcelona twelve years later, from Chelsea.
| Player | Country | Barcelona | Real Madrid | Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josep Samitier | Spain | 1919–1932 (174) | 1932–1934 (14) | direct |
| Ricardo Zamora | Spain | 1919–1922 (38) | 1930–1936 (82) | via Espanyol |
| Hilario | Spain | 1939–1940 (6) | 1931–1936 (73) | via Valencia |
| Evaristo | Brazil | 1957–1962 (114) | 1962–1965 (17) | direct |
| Chus Pereda | Spain | 1961–1969 (134) | 1958–1959 (2) | via Sevilla |
| Lucien Muller | France | 1965–1968 (68) | 1962–1965 (77) | direct |
| Bernd Schuster | Germany | 1980–1988 (170) | 1988–1990 (61) | direct |
| Luis Milla | Spain | 1984–1990 (54) | 1990–1997 (165) | direct |
| Miquel Soler | Spain | 1988–1991, 1992–1993 (81) | 1995–1996 (14) | via Sevilla |
| Julen Lopetegui | Spain | 1994–1997 (5) | 1988–1991 (1) | via Logroñés |
| Michael Laudrup | Denmark | 1989–1994 (166) | 1994–1996 (62) | direct |
| Gheorghe Hagi | Romania | 1994–1996 (36) | 1990–1992 (64) | via Brescia |
| Alfonso Pérez | Spain | 2000–2002 (21) | 1990–1995 (89) | via Betis |
| Nando | Spain | 1990–1992 (63) | 1992–1996 (49) | direct |
| Luis Enrique | Spain | 1996–2004 (207) | 1991–1996 (157) | direct |
| Robert Prosinečki | Croatia | 1995–1996 (19) | 1991–1994 (55) | via Oviedo |
| Dani García | Spain | 1999–2003 (50) | 1994–1998 (10) | via Mallorca |
| Albert Celades | Spain | 1995–1999 (72) | 2000–2003, 2004–2005 (56) | via Celta |
| Luís Figo | Portugal | 1995–2000 (172) | 2000–2005 (164) | direct |
| Ronaldo | Brazil | 1996–1997 (37) | 2002–2007 (127) | via Inter |
| Samuel Eto'o | Cameroon | 2004–2009 (144) | 1997–2000 (3) | via Mallorca |
| Javier Saviola | Argentina | 2001–2007 (123) | 2007–2009 (17) | direct |
| Marcos Alonso | Spain | 2022–2024 (29) | 2010 (1) | via Bolton, Fiorentina, Chelsea |
Goals on both sides
The scorers on the list did most of their damage for one club. Josep Samitier's infobox lists 133 league goals in 174 games for Barcelona over thirteen years, a span that began ten years before Spain's national league was founded in 1929. Samuel Eto'o scored 108 league goals for Barcelona and none in his three games for Real Madrid. Ronaldo is the reverse: 34 league goals in his single season at Barcelona, then 83 in 127 league games over five seasons at Real Madrid, the most by any player on the list for the Madrid side. Figo's numbers are almost a mirror image, 30 league goals in Barcelona and 38 in Madrid.
What the list says
Spanish players make up more than half of the names, 13 of the 23. The ten from abroad arrived from the late 1950s on: Evaristo and Muller in the 1960s, Schuster in the 1980s, and the other seven between 1989 and 2009, from Laudrup to Saviola. Since Saviola in 2007, no player in our data has gone directly between the two.
Some of the players on the list barely touched one of the clubs. Lopetegui and Alonso have one league appearance each for Real Madrid; Eto'o has three. They still count: in Goaler's Tic-Tac-Toe, one senior appearance is enough to fit a club, and a cell that crosses Barcelona with Real Madrid is exactly where a name like Lopetegui earns rarity points.
Facts from Goaler's football data, built from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikidata (CC0). Text written for Goaler.