Raul, Lionel Messi voted best La Liga players of all time; Cristiano Ronaldo comes in 23rd

Valencia: Raul Gonzalez, Cesar Rodriguez, Telmo Zarra, Lionel Messi and Enrique Castro ‘Quini’ led the list of the best footballers in La Liga’s history, according to a study conducted by the Centre for Research on Spanish Football History and Statistics. The findings of the study depended on the performance analysis of the 9,117 La Liga players from the season of 1928-29 until 2015-16, reports Efe. [caption id=“attachment_3042204” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Lionel Messi. Reuters[/caption] The survey’s analysts believe that the performance of football players can be assessed with the same criteria used in basketball, including scored points, rebounds, assists and fouls. Under the standards of this study, 24 points are awarded to each player based on minutes played per season, one point for each goal scored and 0.60 point for each scored penalty. On the other hand, 0.40 point is subtracted for each goal mistakenly scored by the player in his own team and 1.50 points are subtracted for each red card. Thus, Raul Gonzalez, Real Madrid player between 1994 and 2010, topped the list with 528 points, four points ahead of Cesar Rodriguez, former player of Barcelona between 1942 and 1955. Telmo Zarra, former player of Athletic Bilbao from 1940 to 1957, came third with 493 points, followed by Barcelona current star Messi, who started at the Catalan club in 2004, with 490 points. Quini, former player of Sporting Gijon and Barcelona from 1968 to 1987, came fifth with 488 points. The remaining top 10 positions were occupied by Juan Arza, Alfredo Di Stefano, Francisco Gento, Carlos Alonso ‘Santillana’ and Guillermo Gorostiza respectively. Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo held the 23rd position.