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5 Former Barca/Real Players Who You Really Wouldn't Associate With El Clasico

Mikey Traynor
By Mikey Traynor
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El Clasico is a stage for the best players in the world to show what they can do.

Probably the biggest match in football, players like Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Luis Suarez, Raul, Neymar, and Beckham have all set the match alight in the past, but there have also been a few chancers who made their mark too.

Here are five players that wouldn't come to mind when you think of El Clasico.

Fabio Rochemback

Best known in these parts for being utterly useless for Middlesbrough, Rochemback was actually one of those Brazilian wonderkids who many thought would be a star during his youth. After making the move from Internacional to Barca, Fabio made 45 appearances for the Catalan club before they cut their losses and sold him to Boro.

Thomas Gravesen

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A man regularly mistaken for Lee Carsley, Gravesen was signed by Real Madrid during the galacticos era, presumably to balance out the wages. While he was certainly not a bad player, he was best known for his tough-tackling style and fondness of breaking people up, so he's not the first person you think of when you think Barca vs Real.

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Royston Drenthe

Drenthe's story is a bizarre one. After shining at the Euro U21s for Holland, he was believed to be one of the best talents in world football, and signed for Real Madrid. He played 46 times in five years for los blancos, before being loaned out, eventually winding up at Reading, and then Sheffield Wednesday. Now he plays for clubs we can't pronounce in Turkey.

Julio Baptista

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One of those players whose form fell off a cliff after looking like a world beater, Real snatched him away from Sevilla and he we never the same player. Madrid eventually loaned him to Arsenal where he scored 4 goals in a League Cup game against Liverpool but mainly became the butt of a many a joke for his all-round play.

Dmytro Chygrynskiy

The 'Ukranian Puyol' made the move to Barca after they shelled out €25m to activate his release clause and sign him from Shakhtar. Sadly for his new employers, the comparisons to Puyol ended with his hair as he played 12 times in one season with the Catalan club.

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