Cristiano Ronaldo statistically only La Liga’s 23rd best player and Lionel Messi is at No4 — with Raul finishing top of the list
- Spanish study looked at 9,117 players since league's inception in 1929
- Barcelona's second-top goal scorer Cesar in at No.2
- Messi has won eight titles but misses out on podium finish
CRISTIANO RONALDO may be Real Madrid’s record goalscorer — but a recent Spanish study has listed him as the 23rd greatest La Liga player of all-time.
Of course, Lionel Messi must have been voted No.1, right?
He has won the Ballon d’Or five times, the Spanish title eight times, and the Champions League four times.
But, no — the Argentina superstar just missed out on a podium finish as he came fourth.
Real Madrid legend, Raul, was top of the pile in a study by Spanish research centre, .
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They looked back at the statistics at all 9,117 players to have ever played in La Liga since its inception in 1929.
Points were based on minutes played, goals, goals concede and red and yellow cards.
Raul is second behind Andoni Zubizarreta on the competition’s list of all-time appearance makers and fifth on the scoring list.
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He won La Liga six times from 1994 to 2008.
Barcelona’s 1940s hero, Cesar Rodriguez Alvarez, who is now second to Messi in the Catalans’ all-time goalscoring list, was second the list.
He played from Barcelona from 1939 to 1955, scoring 190 La Liga goals in 287 appearances, winning the title on five times.
While Telmo Zarra — whose striking exploits for Athletic Bilbao have seen the highest-scoring Spaniard awarded the Zarra Trophy at the end of every season — finished just behind in third place.
He was the top goal scorer in Spain on six occasions and netted the winner when Spain beat England the 1950 World Cup.
Other notables were David Villa (32nd), Xavi (49th) and Iker Casillas (62nd).