Dutch-German rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index

Real Madrid, Barcelona
Basque, Catalonia, Castile without Madrid players, Madrid Community, Andalusia
Real Madrid All-Time Team Under Florentina Perez
Real Madrid All-Time Team Under Miguel Munoz
Real Madrid Argentine Best XI
Real Madrid Castilla Greatest All-Time
Real Madrid All-Time Team for Foreign Players
Spain without Real Madrid and Barcelona players
Real Madrid All-Time Team for Spanish players
Barcelona Dutch Best XI
Barcelona All-Time Team for Spanish Players
Barcelona All-Time Team for Foreign Players

Some of the unpublished posts from this blog have been turned into a two-volume book: The Multiverse of the Beautiful Game: National Teams of Pure Fantasy.

Volume 1 takes you back in time and asks the questions every football fan has dreamed about. What if Brazil had a more beautiful team in 1982 — would they have cruised to the title? What if the United Kingdom could send its team to the 1970 World Cup? I believe they would have been the strongest side on earth. What if Argentina had fielded both Omar Sivori and Alfredo Di Stéfano together in 1958? What if Johan Cruyff had lined up alongside Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, and Frank Rijkaard? What if Eusébio had played for Brazil? And that's only scratching the surface — Volume 1 is packed with legendary "what ifs" that will keep you turning pages.

Volume 2 brings the fantasy closer to home. What if England had Michael Olise, Erling Haaland and others in 2026 — could they go all the way? What if Yugoslavia had gone to the World Cup in 2018? What if the United States could select more players in 2010? It would be the greatest American side ever. And what if Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had actually played for the same national team in 2006? It could have happened — if the soccer gods had smiled on us.

*** Both Volume One and Volume Two are available now on Amazon. ***

       In the early 1970's, Barcelona became a "Dutch club" when they signed Rinus Michel, Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens. Real Madrid responded by going "German". Gunter Netzer joined Real Madrid in 1973 shortly after Cruyff signed for Barcelona. A year later, Paul Breitner arrived from Bayern Munich on the same summer that Neeskens went to Barcelona. Breitner was considered one of the most controversial transfers in football history. He was a Maoist while Franco was still alive in 1974. In 1976, Real Madrid signed Henning Jensen, a Dane playing for Borussia Mönchengladback, and then, Uli Stielike a year later, also from the same club.

      This Dutch-German rivalry in La Liga lasted from 1973 to 1979. In Cruyff's first season, Barcelona won La Liga, their first title since 1960.  However,that was Barcelona's only La Liga title(1972-73) during this period.  They also won a single Copa del Rey 1977-78. Meanwhile, Real Madrid won 4 out of the 6 league titles. They also won two Copa del Reys.  Netherlands played against West Germany in the Final of World Cup 1974. Cruyff, as most of you probably knew, was a star of that WC Finals. Netzer, however, lost his place to Wolfgang Overath.

      After Neeskens left Barcelona in 1979, Barcelona actually looked at the Bundesliga for players. They bought Allan Simonsen, a Danish teammate of Jensen and Stielike from Borussia Mönchengladback in 1979. A year later, they signed Bernd Schuster.  

Breitner vs Cruyff, Camacho looked on

Netzer and Cruyff

The Dutch legacy would continue in Barcelona. Johan Cruyff returned to Barcelona as the manager in 1988.  He  won the first ever European Cup for Barcelona in 1992 with his "Dream Team".  Ronald Koeman scored the winning goal at Wembley that night.  Louis van Gaal also had two spells as Barcelona's manager from the late 1990's until 2003.  Under him, Barcelona was loaded with Dutch players.  Ruud Hesp, Patrick Kluivert, Philip Cocu, Michael Reiziger, Winston Bogarde,  Ronald de Boer, Frank de Boer, Boudewijn Zenden, Marc Overmars and Giovanni van Bronckhorst all played for Barcelona during or between his two spells.  Frank Rijkaard took over in 2003 and he brought Edgar Davids to the club in 2004 and Mark van Bommel in 2005.

Robben and Sneijder

      Meanwhile, Real Madrid's German connection did not expand after the 1970's.   Bernd Schuster joined from Barcelona in 1988 and Bodo Illgner came in 1996.  Real Madrid had no other German players until Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira joined in 2010, and Toni Kroos in 2014.  Schuster's transfer was controversial, but it was not the same epic proportion of the transfer of Luis Figo in 2000.  Illgner would win a Champions' League trophy in 1998.  In fact, Real Madrid bought a lot of Dutch players between 2007 and 2009 when Schuster became the manager.  Royston Drenthe, Arjen Robben, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Rafael van der Vaart  joined the club in that period.  Schuster only signed a single German, Christopher Metzelder. On the other hand, Rijkaard was managing Barcelona at the same time.  He only had Van Bommel on his team(Davids was on half a season loan deal).

Spain without Real Madrid and Barcelona players