The Top 10 Best Midfielders in La Liga

Spanish top-division football is considered the best for technical ability. The best midfielders in La Liga come from across the globe. La Liga might not have the world-class performers of the previous 20 years, but the league still has midfield studs. Jude Bellingham was statistically and tangibly the best player last season and the best midfielder in La Liga. 

He was the fulcrum of Real Madrid’s domestic and European success. Bellingham and Vinicius Júnior fired Los Blancos to their 36th La Liga title and a 15th UEFA Champions League crown. They are the two favourites for the 2024 Ballon d’Or award. Vinicius, however, is an attacking forward, playing primarily as a left winger. Goals and assists flow from this position, not usually from central midfield. 

The central midfielder has scored 26 goals and has 13 assists for club and country. Bellingham has won a string of La Liga awards this season, including the 2023/24 Most Valuable Player of the Year. He was also selected to the league’s Team of the Year in a midfield five. 

Bellingham was awarded the Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year in 2024. The former Borussia Dortmund playmaker is with England at the 2024 UEFA European Championships in Germany. SportsBoom researched archives and statistics to determine who the top 10 midfielders in La Liga in 2023/24 are. 

Who is the Best Midfielder in La Liga in 2024?

Jude Bellingham is the best midfielder in La Liga. He starred in his debut season at Real Madrid. The English midfielder scored 19 goals and provided six assists. He has a goal or assist in every club and international tournament he played in 2023/24. He has been England’s best player at UEFA Euro 2024. Bellingham tied third with Robert Lewandowski in the Pichichi Trophy race, five goals behind Girona striker Artem Dovbyk (24).

Five midfielders were selected in La Liga’s Team of the Year (TOTY), but only two of the five  players make the top 10 best midfielders list for goals and assists. Bellingham leads the way, with Isco. İlkay Gündoğan, Aleix García, and Federico Valverde were also included in the TOTY, but they did not rank in the top 10 best midfielders in La Liga. 

Surprisingly, only two Real Madrid players feature in the top 10 best midfielders in La Liga 2023/24 list. Arda Güler scored six goals in only 343 minutes of first-team football for Los Blancos. Güler did not provide any assists, but he did score for Türkiye at Euro 2024.

Toni Kroos (one goal and eight assists), Luka Modrić (two goals and six assists), and Aurélien Tchouaméni (three goals and one assist) had excellent seasons for Madrid, but their goals and assists involvement was low. Bellingham had an exceptional campaign. The youngster carried Madrid’s midfield on his back as they conquered Spain and Europe. Tchouaméni is, however, the best defensive midfielder in Spain, meaning the goals will be fewer than the more advanced midfielders. 

No midfielder registered double-digit goals and assists in La Liga. Sergio Arribas and Viktor Tsyhankov, Isco, and Fermín López are the only midfielders to score eight or more goals. Arribas came close to double figures with nine strikes despite playing the fewest minutes of the top four best midfielders in La Liga.

Arribas (Almería), Tsyhankov (Girona), and Isco (Real Betis) ranked second to fourth among the El Clásico midfielders. Barcelona’s midfielders, much like Madrid, experienced drought in front of goal. Gavi (one goal and assist) and Pedri (four goals, two assists) did not provide much going forward.

Gündoğan, signed from Manchester City in the European summer, finished equal-eleventh for goals. The German playmaker did, however, collect nine assists, two more than second best on the top 10 list, Tsyhankov (seven). Alejandro Baena topped La Liga’s assist charts. 

The Villarreal attacking midfielder set up 14 goals and netted two. Baena is the only midfielder with double-digit more assists in Spain, five more than Gündoğan. Tsyhankov, Isco and López netted eight times. López did not provide any assists but played fewer games than the others. Only Gündoğan from Barcelona’s midfield quartet of himself, Fermín, Pedri, and Gavi made the club’s top-five assist list.

Pepelu, Marcos Llorente, Kirian Rodríguez, Álvaro García, and Güler complete the top 10 best list for goals and assists. Brais Méndez, Iván Martín, Mikel Merino, Yangel Herrera, and Gündoğan are the only other La Liga midfielders with five or more goals in 2023/24. 

Martín, Herrera, and Tsyhankov combined for 18 goals and 11 assists, meaning Girona’s midfielders produced the second-most goals and assists in the league after Madrid. The Catalans had the second-best midfield in La Liga in 2023/24. However, thanks to the best midfielder in La Liga, Bellingham, Real Madrid top the individual and combined chart.