Real Madrid's Most Over-Hyped Players of the Last 10 Years

Real Madrid, being the club they are and fighting for the titles they do, generally believe they have the best players available—and often they are right.

World-class stars are signed, a handful of genuinely top-class youngsters arrive here and there, and the team continually picks up silverware, both domestically and in European competition.

But they don't always get it right when assessing just how good a player is. Sometimes, whether through the club, the fans or the media, a player at the Santiago Bernabeu is hyped to the high heavens, touted as the next great to wear the shirt for Los Blancos...yet flops spectacularly or, even if they are decent, are certainly nowhere near the labels placed on them.

We're not talking about those whose time at the club was ruined by injury or who simply played better elsewhere.

Nope, here are seven Real Madrid would-be stars who were expected to be world beaters in their respective positions but in truth were (or so far are) little more than of standard quality, disappointing in their ability to re-write headlines and history.

Danilo

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A big-money move two years ago, Danilo was supposed to bring world-class thrust and penetration down the right flank, almost a mirror image of what Roberto Carlos did for years on the left for Real Madrid.

Instead, what they've got for a £22.6 million fee is an expensive bench-warmer who is barely trusted by his team-mates, derided by the fans and responsible for a whole host of defensive mistakes.

The former FC Porto man has struggled to make any kind of positive impact at the Santiago Bernabeu, and even his better performances, such as against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League, have rarely led to a sustained run in the team.

Considering the outlay on him and Rafa Benitez trying to integrate Danilo into the team, he may well go down as one of the most expensive flops in club history, but he will certainly find it difficult to shed the reputation of being someone who has utterly failed to live up to expectations—even if it wasn't he who set them in the first place.

Martin Odegaard

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Who can forget the Martin Odegaard tour of Europe?

We'll preface the entire section on him with a reminder of his age: He's still only 18, despite having been imprinted on the football world's consciousness for more than two years.

The Norwegian teen had a host of trials at the likes of Liverpool and Bayern Munich, and he essentially had his pick of which club to join, eventually opting for Real Madrid in January 2015. He was already a senior international, he cost more than £2 million having been a first-teamer at 15 years of age and was reported to be on £80,000 per week when he signed.

All this and most of the watching world wondering just how good he must be, judging by the YouTube reels and incredible technique.

Two years on, he has been labelled a disaster by Sport and has now been sent out on loan to Heerenveen in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Odegaard wasn't a star for Real Madrid, he wasn't even a star at Castilla, the B team, and all the pressure in the world from Florentino Perez on Real's managers couldn't force the fact that Odegaard was overhyped much too early and still needs time to develop both as a player and a young man.

Borja Mayoral

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Real Madrid have a proud history of strikers, though most of them have been store-bought, ready for action and fit for purpose.

There are two exceptions in recent years, of course: the great Raul, now retired, and Alvaro Morata, the youth graduate who left for Juventus and has since returned.

In between those two came Borja Mayoral, a great striker among his age group with Castilla and looking set for stardom...until the move to the first team came, that is. 

Mayoral attracted interest after a tremendous performance and goal in the UEFA Youth League, while UEFA's website reported on how Borja had been touted as Raul's replacement, and even Zinedine Zidane, his coach in the B team, suggested the striker "scores every time he has a shot. He's a vital player for us."

High praise indeed...but Zidane hasn't quite stuck with that train of thought.

Even as recently as last season, Madrid fans voted in their thousands for Mayoral to start when Karim Benzema was absent through injury, such was the clamour over his talent.

Come the summer, though, Mayoral was sent out on loan to Wolfsburg—and the 19-year-old hasn't adapted to the demands of regular action, making just three starts and scoring twice in 17 appearances.

A long way to go to Raul's level, it seems.

Daniel Opare

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Well before Danilo was "the answer" at right-back, Real Madrid fought off competition from around Europe to sign the next great from Africa: Daniel Opare.

The powerful runner from defence was seen as a cert for the first team, a natural (and better) successor to Michel Salgado...yet he never made a single appearance for Real Madrid's seniors in the end.

After starring at the Under-17 World Cup, in 2008 Real won the race for Opare's signature and paid more than £1 million for the then-17-year-old, who was due to be part of Ghana's Africa Cup of Nations squad that same year before injury curtailed his hopes.

Injury was to become a common theme for Opare, but even when fit, he rarely looked the world-beater that had been hoped of him, and eventually he found his level, moving from Real to Standard Liege and, most recently, Lens on loan from Augsburg.

It's all a far cry from Opare's hopes of playing against Leo Messi and for Manchester United.

Esteban Granero

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Quite how Esteban Granero landed a move to Real Madrid in the first place is astonishing enough, but remaining three years at the club and being touted as a vital midfielder in one of the world's best teams is quite another matter.

Granero was a Madrid youth player, leaving for Getafe before being brought back on a buyback clause in 2009.

A player with good technique, no pace and questionable mentality, Granero was a mid-tier La Liga player at best—and yet was linked with some of Europe's biggest sides for a time, including Arsenal, and when he did eventually depart the Santiago Bernabeu (to Queens Park Rangers) claimed that then-Real manager Jose Mourinho wanted him to stay in the squad.

Three years at Madrid saw Granero competing with the likes of Sami Khedira and then Fabio Coentrao, losing to both for game time despite the latter being horrendously out of position in central midfield.

Five years on from leaving Madrid, Granero is now a bit-part player at Real Sociedad.

Julio Baptista

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Julio Baptista made a big impact with Sevilla in La Liga, scoring 47 times in two seasons and prompting Real Madrid to make the move in 2005/06.

When Real come calling for a forward, particularly a Brazilian, they tend to be top drawer—but Baptista fell hard, spending three years attached to Los Blancos and failing to hit double figures once.

Real saw him as "the chosen one," the star signing of the year according to La Confidencial (in Spanish) when the deal to bring Baptista in was set to be announced, but within a year, he had been loaned out to Arsenal—who wanted to eventually send him back early.

A paltry three-goal return in Baptista's third season was the final nail in his Madrid-based coffin, with moves to Roma and Malaga thereafter, and a brief stay at Orlando City last year, rarely yielding goal celebrations.

Baptista wasn't much cop at predicting other talents either, apparently suggesting Lucas Silva could become a star at Real Madrid in 2014.

Robinho

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The final shout goes to the man who looked destined for the very top in his highlight reels, yet never even came close to being such an incredible player, either with Real Madrid or elsewhere.

Robinho was perhaps the most overhyped player in all of Spain in the 2000s, the prototype version of Neymar—except without the current Brazil star's influence on matches, consistency or killer edge in the final third.

Robinho had quality, for sure. Flashes of skill, moments of genius and the capacity to score goals when the side was in good form...but he was never a leader, rarely capable of taking a game by the scruff of the neck when Real Madrid needed inspiration and certainly never selfless enough to make the result about the team, rather than himself.

Upon joining Manchester City from Real, Robinho was still talking about becoming the best player in the world. Soon after, he suggested moving to Barcelona might help him there. Too infrequently, it was actually about being the best player for his team.

That led to his departure from Real Madrid, with the club valuing Cristiano Ronaldo more than he and the Brazilian not being happy about it.

Fair to say, the Spanish club got that one spot on.

Robinho had all the talent but was perhaps the biggest proof that more than mere ability is needed to reach the top, no matter how many times a player is hyped up as the best on the planet.