In the history of the Premier League, few countries have provided more incredible talents than the country of Spain.
Arsenal’s Martin Zubimendi will be the 186th Spaniard to play in the Premier League. If there’s one position that the country does better than anyone, it’s midfielders.
Here’s our ranking of the 10 greatest Spanish midfielders in Premier League history.
10. Pablo Hernandez
(Can you tell Planet Football’s resident Leeds United fan put this one together?)
‘El Mago’ is a legend at Elland Road, although he was pushed to the periphery by Marcelo Bielsa after inspiring Leeds to promotion in 2019-20.
Hernandez makes the cut for his short but sweet stint at Swansea City, with whom he memorably won the League Cup – the Welsh club’s first-ever piece of major silverware – back in 2011.
Honourable mentions to Ander Herrera, Mikel Merino, Ivan Campo, Oriol Romeu and Pablo Sarabia, all of whom narrowly missed the cut.
9. Gaizka Mendieta
A number of the players on this list arguably peaked outside of England for continental giants including Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
For no player does that apply to more than Mendieta, who was a force of nature in his Valencia pomp. Just watch his legendary goal in their 1999 Copa del Rey final victory for evidence of quite how good he was.
Ultimately, Mendieta would’ve never been at Middlesbrough were he not on the downslope – but even past his peak he was a special player for the Smoggies. Particularly in his debut season on loan, which culminated in them winning the League Cup.
Best of all, he genuinely embraced life on Teesside.
“I’d been at Valencia, Barca, Lazio, always looking for the big clubs so I thought why not go to not such a big club and do something different,” Mendieta told us a few years back.
“Try a different approach, go to a club where it’s actually trying to make history, trying to change their history, trying to achieve big things for a club at that level and become part of that although I didn’t give it much thought at the first meeting we had, it grew on me as I waited on all the options that I had.
“In England, there was a couple of clubs but the one that really caught my eye was Boro so that’s when I decided okay let’s do this new project.”
8. Thiago Alcantara
Oh, what might’ve been.
There’s only a handful of players in Premier League history who can match Thiago for pure silk. His technical ability was off the charts.
Unfortunately, regular injury issues in his advancing years mean that we can’t really place the La Masia graduate any higher. Were he fit and firing more consistently for Liverpool, he might well have earned a place in the upper echelons of this list.
Still, in the one season he did feature fairly regularly for Jurgen Klopp’s Reds, they were only two matches away from claiming a historic quadruple. That tallies.
7. Mikel Arteta
The only player in our top 10 that was never capped at international level for Spain, this list is a testament to the outrageous midfield depth La Roja boasted throughout the 2000s and 2010s.
This lot alongside Barcelona’s era-defining trio Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. England would’ve killed for just one of the tiki-taka tempo-setters that the Spanish game seemed to produce in droves.
Arteta was eventually eligible to play for England, such was his longevity in the Premier League – six years at Everton, five at Arsenal.
The current Arsenal boss would be the first to admit he wasn’t quite as talented as some of his contemporaries, but his commitment saw him make over 250 Premier League appearances. He was also the Gunners’ captain when they ended their nine-year trophy drought with the FA Cup in 2014.
6. Juan Mata
You might say that Mata didn’t quite have the career he might have.
League titles didn’t come until his swansong years in Turkey and Japan, and seldom did he challenge for the Premier League crown during his peak years at Chelsea and Manchester United. And he went six years without lifting any silverware at Old Trafford.
But that’s the collective context. Mata was simply a lovely footballer, loved by fans everywhere he’s been. He was capable of breathtaking moments during those early years at Chelsea, a shining star when they won the Champions League and the Europa League in successive years.
5. Santi Cazorla
The Arsenal cult hero is undoubtedly also one of the most universally adored footballers we’ve been blessed with in the Premier League.
No one has a bad word to say about Santi, do they?
We’re unashamed members of the Cazorla fan club.
Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla directs his team-mates in a Premier League match against Fulham, Emirates Stadium, London, 10 November 2012
READ: An ode to Arsenal-era Santi Cazorla, master of three different roles
4. Xabi Alonso
“I thought to myself: ‘Top signing. Pure class. Touch, vision, the creative works,” Steven Gerrard wrote in his 2006 autobiography, on seeing Alonso for the first time in training.
The legendary Liverpool midfielder later expanded his thoughts in a Daily Mail column:
“It was clear Alonso was royalty after our first training session together in August 2004, and Rafa Benitez, who had been so clever to buy him in the first place, was equally stupid to sell him to Real Madrid five years later.
“He was, by some distance, the best central midfielder I ever played alongside.”
We can’t say better than that.
3. Rodri
There exists a very sound argument for placing Rodri at number one on this list.
Only two midfielders in history have won the Ballon d’Or while representing an English club. One was Bobby Charlton. The other, over half a century later, was Rodri.
There can be little question that Rodri’s reading of the game is unrivalled or that pre-injury he was the best player in his position in world football. He might well be the greatest defensive midfielder the Premier League has ever seen.
But we’re football romantics here at Planet Football. Rodri is brilliant, but we’re looking for a bit more creative magic from our Spanish midfielders.
2. Cesc Fabregas
…creative magic, you say?
Only Ryan Giggs and Kevin De Bruyne have notched more Premier League assists than Fabregas. He set up 117 goals and scored a further 50 in just 350 outings in the English top flight.
English football had seldom seen a talent like Fabregas when he first broke through as a teenager at Arsenal, and he was arguably even better at Chelsea – where he shone in their last two title triumphs under Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
1. David Silva
Pep Guardiola says Silva is the best player he’s ever seen at “playing in the pockets”.
That almost ethereal quality is what made El Mago (for many the real one, sorry Hernandez) such an irresistible player.
He played over 300 Premier League games for Manchester City and is certainly in the conversation as the club’s all-time greatest player, such was the starring role he played in the club’s ascent to an all-conquering superforce.
Bonus fact: three of the players in this top 10 (Silva, Mata, Hernandez) all played together for Unai Emery’s Valencia in the late noughties. For that not to have been the best midfield in La Liga is the ultimate attestation of how good Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona were.
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