Real Madrid v Barcelona: Stars who played on both sides of the rivalry
Julen Lopetegui
The 56 year old coached Sevilla to a Europa League win, although he became most notorious for his sackings. When it was announced in 2018 that he would leave the Spain national team after the World Cup to take over Real Madrid, the football association took offense and instead sacked him just before the tournament.
Most recently, he was shown the door at Sevilla just half an hour after losing a Champions League match to Dortmund.
Before all that though, he was a goalkeeper. After spending three years in Real's reserve side Castilla, he made his one and only appearance for Los Blancos in a 3-3 draw against city rivals Atletico. After a loan to Las Palmas and a stint at Logroñés where he finally became the starter, he transferred to Barcelona as a replacement for Andoni Zubizarreta.
However, he lost the battle for the starting spot to Carles Busquets and made just five appearances for the Catalan side. When Barca brought in Vítor Baia, Lopetegui became the third-choice goalie before moving back to Madrid, this time to Rayo Vallecano. There, he spent the last five years of his career before retiring at 36.
Robert Prosinecki
Prosinecki was one of the centerpoints of Croatia's brilliant generation which finished third at the 1998 World Cup. He was a midfield maestro on the pitch and a real wildcard off it - Peter Crouch, his teammate at Porstmouth, once recalled that the only time the Croatian wasn't chainsmoking Marlboro Reds was when he was playing a match.
His talent caught the eyes of both Real and Barcelona. He first transfered to Madrid in 1991 after helping Red Star Belgrade win the European Cup. He scored his first goal for the royal club from a free kick in El Clasico, but injuries and inconsistency plagued his time at the Santiago Bernabeu.
After a successful loan to Oviedo, he nearly followed former Real coach Radomir Antic to another rival, Atletico, but Barcelona hijacked the deal and brought Prosinecki to Camp Nou as a free agent. Muscle injuries preventing him from making a real impact there as well and after a season and a half he moved to Sevilla.
After leaving Spain, he played for several sides his home country of Croatia, Standard Liege in Belgium and Portsmouth in England.
Gheorghe Hagi
Perhaps the best and most adored player from Romania, beloved by Galatasaray fans in Turkey as well, now coaches in his home country. He founded and managed Viitorul Constanta, a club which recently merged with Farul Constanta, which Hagi is the coach of now.
The attacking midfielder spent two seasons each with the two biggest clubs in Spain. Real Madrid paid 3.5 million dollars to Steaua Bucuresti to acquite Hagi after he starred for Romania at the 1990 World Cup.
He immediately won the Spanish Supercup and scored some beautiful goals for Los Blancos in his two year sting, including a 40 yard lob against Osasuna, but ultimately didn't live up to the expectations and was sold to Brescia. With him as the main star, the Italian team was relegated to Serie B before bouncing back up again immediately. After starring at another World Cup, this time in 1994, LaLiga came calling again - this time it was Barcelona who lured Hagi in.
He won another Supercup with Barca, but struggled for time under Johan Cruyff, who preferred Romario and Hristo Stoichkov over him. Hagi moved to Turkey to play for Galatasaray, where he enjoyed the absolute best years of his career after turning 30, even winning the league, cup, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup all in 2000 at the age of 35. While his years at Real or Barca weren't as good as he hoped, in Istanbul, he truly became Regele - The King.
Javier Saviola
The diminutive striker , who holds the honor of being the youngest player on Pelé's 2004 list of 125 greatest footballers, started and finished his career with River Plate in his home country of Argentina. He is a cult hero at Benfica and had great years with Olympiacos or Monaco, but he is most remembered for his time in Spain, where he's now on the coaching team of Barcelona's U19 side.
The Bueonos Aires native moved to Barcelona from River Plate in 2001 and scored 17 goals in his first season. That was his best year at Camp Nou, however - between 2004 and 2006, he was even surplus to requirements and loaned to Monaco and then Sevilla. After his final season, where he scored five goals mostly subbing in for an injured Samuel Eto'o (more on him later), his contract was up and he made the controversial decision to sign with Real Madrid as a free agent.
He played only 17 league games over the two seasons and Santiago Bernabeu, not breaking through the competition of Raul Gonzalez, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gonzalo Higuain or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. He enjoyed success in his three seasons with Benfica and retired as a River Plate player in 2015.
Samuel Eto'o
Before he won the treble with Inter and became a journeyman striker playing in England, Italy, Russia, Turkey and Qatar, the current president of the Cameroon Football Association was a superstar with Barcelona alongside a young Lionel Messi and a magician called Ronaldinho.
You surely recall him playing in the red and blue, but do you remember it was actually Barcelona's biggest rivals who brought the striker to Spain?
Eto'o joined Real's academy at the age of 16, but played mostly for the reserves and was sent out on three different loans. He impressed the most in the last one with Mallorca and joined the side permanently in 2000.
Four years and 54 league goals later, he left Mallorca as their best ever domestic league goalscorer and joined an immensely talented Barcelona side.
Alongside Messi and Ronaldinho, he won eight trophies (including two for winning the Champions League and scored 130 goals in 199 total appearances. Los Blancos fans might be a bit angry their club let the prolific striker go so early.
Luis Enrique
Much like Eto'o, the current Spain national team coach is most remembered for his time with Barcelona - whether as a player or a coach. But it's easy to forget he played for Real too, and it wasn't just a short appearance.
After impressing at Gijon, Luis Enrique transferred to Real in 1991 and spent five seasons there, scoring 18 goals over 213 matches. Despite a long stint at the Santiago Bernabeu, the versatile midfielder wasn't very happy there and let his contract run out in 1996, saying he "rarely felt appreciated by the supporters and didn't have good memories there."
As if that didn't anger the fans of Real enough, he later signed a contract with Barcelona, the fierce rivals against whom he scored in a 5-0 win just a year prior. Barca fans didn't exactly welcome him with open arms, as they rarely do with a player who switches from Real directly, but he managed to win them over quite quickly.
He ended up staying eight years, winning LaLiga twice and even captaining the side before retiring after an injury-ridden final season. He later returned to Barcelona as a coach, leading them to nine trophies including the 2014/15 Champions League.
Michael Laudrup
The former Brondby and Swansea manager is one of the best players to come out of Denmark and enjoyed great success with some of the biggest European sides. He joined Barcelona in 1989 from Juventus and became an integral part of "The Dream Team" coached by the one and only Johan Cruyff.
The side also featured the likes of Ronald Koeman, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mari Bakero or Hristo Stoichkov, who scored many goals from Laudrup's passes. They won LaLiga four times in a row between 1991 and 1994 and also took home the European Cup in 1992.
When Barcelona signed another foreign star in Romario, the players without a Spanish passport had to rotate in the team and Laudrup eventually became the odd one out. Fans and teammates alike begged him to stay, but he decided his time at Camp Nou was over and joined arch-rivals Real Madrid in a controversial move many believe was revenge against Cruyff who he had a falling out with.
He only spent two years at the Bernábeu, but won the league once again (becoming the only player ever to win LaLiga five times in a row for two different clubs) and was even voted their 12th best player ever in a 2002 poll ran by Marca.
Safe to say he left more than an impressive legacy at the two biggest clubs in Spain before departing for Japanese side Vissel Kobe in 1996 and eventually wrapping up his career at Ajax.
Luis Figo
One of the greatest wingers of all time and a serial winner, Luis Figo also became the centerpiece of one of the most controversial transfers in football history. It recently got its own Netflix documentary.
After impressing with Sporting and nearly moving to Italy to play for Juventus or Parma, the Portuguese signed with Barcelona in 1995. He spent five years there, won LaLiga twice and became a fan favorite... Before one day turned him into the biggest villain in the eyes of Barca fans.
Despite constantly denying the rumours, he signed for Real Madrid in 2000 in a massive deal worth more than 60 million euros - he accepted a Ballon d'Or that year as a Real player, even if it was awarded to him for his successes with the arch-rival.
He became the face of the rivalry, booed by Barca fans every time he touched the ball in El Clásico, and being the target of genuinely everything they can throw at him. You remember the pig's head, right?
"Luís didn't deserve that. He'd given his all for Barcelona. It was built up before: 'a traitor’s coming,' the media said. No, Luís Figo is coming, one of the greats for you. That night hurt him, you could see. His head was bowed and he was thinking: 'bloody hell, I was here last season ...' But my lasting emotion was admiration: you’ve got balls," teammate Ivan Campo recalled in Fear and Loathing in LaLiga, Sid Lowe's book on the Real-Barcelona rivalry.
Figo spent five years at the Santiago Bernabeu, won two league titles and the Champions League once before moving to Inter Milan and winning four more titles.
Ronaldo
You must be a very special player if you managed to play for Barcelona and Real and still be loved by fanbases of both. Well, Ronaldo was that special - who didn't adore O Fenomeno, who tore apart defences on one healthy knee?
The Brazilian who now owns Spanish side Real Valladolid transfered to Barcelona from PSV Eindhoven in 1996 in a then-record breaking deal. Despite claims he signed an eight year contract, he spent a single season at Camp Nou and scored 47 goals in 49 appearances - many of them into an open goal after dribbling past a hopeless goalkeeper.
After one year, he was gone to Inter (in ANOTHER world record transfer), where he won his first Ballon d'Or but also started to have injury issues. He joined Real in 2002 as the latest of the famed Galacticos, playing alongside Zidane, Beckham or Figo. Injuries limited him quite a bit, but he still managed to score 104 goals in 177 games and produce many iconic moments.
When he scored a hat-trick to knock Manchester United out of the Champions League, both Real and United fans applauded him when he was substituted off. He won LaLiga twice with Real before moving to AC Milan and eventually retiring as a Corinthians player in Brazil.
