Atletico Madrid have had some wonderful players in the 21st century, but who are the best?
We’ve taken a look at the top 10, and after starting with Nos. 10-6 on Monday, we conclude here with the final five.
5. Sergio Aguero
Given just how young he was when he played for Atletico Madrid, Sergio Aguero’s goalscoring record for the club really is quite staggering.
A club-record signing shortly before he turned 18 in 2006, the Argentinian was gently eased in to life in La Liga, but once he hit his stride, he really took some stopping.
In fact, it was arguably the departure of Fernando Torres to Liverpool in the summer of 2007 that really made Aguero the player that we all know today, with a sudden expectation and weight placed on to the shoulders of the then 19-year-old forward. He responded brilliantly.
He ended the 2007/08 campaign as the third-highest goalscorer in La Liga, with his displays often compared to those of his compatriot and friend Lionel Messi—who had emerged at Barcelona over a similar time period.
Aguero’s goals had helped Atletico transform from a side only troubling the middle reaches of La Liga into one challenging for a spot in the Champions League. The arrival of the Uruguayan forward Diego Forlan led to the pair forming a lethal strike partnership, with Forlan scoring the majority of the goals and Aguero’s all-around play improving as he featured alongside him.
The pair won the Europa League in 2010, but Aguero was to have just one more season at the Vicente Calderon. It proved to be his best in terms of league goals, with the 20 strikes (and 27 in all competitions) taking his tally to 101 in the colours of Atletico.
He remains one of only 10 men to have scored over a century of goals for the club.
4. Diego Costa
Although he didn’t score the amount of goals for Atletico that others on this list have, Diego Costa earns such a high ranking simply because of what he represented to the club.
After several seasons of bouncing around on various loan moves, the forward had a hunger and desire to succeed that would come to symbolise exactly what Atletico were about under Diego Simeone, with an emphasis on carving a place among the game’s elite.
Costa was completely central to that.
His initial spell in the team in the 2010/11 season had been a fairly stop-start one, and after the fourth and final loan move away from the club to Rayo Vallecano the following season, he returned to play a key role in the Simeone revolution.
His goal in the 2013 Copa Del Rey final against Real Madrid was one that turned the course of the game and helped his side to a huge victory against their near neighbours, but it was to be the following campaign in which he really excelled.
Thirty-six goals in all competitions led Atletico to La Liga glory and the Champions League final, where sadly an injury forced Costa to limp out of action early on.
Had he been fully fit, then Atletico might well have a European Cup to their name now.
3. Gabi
Every team needs leaders, and the type of selfless, intelligent players who can knit things together and be called upon when needed.
Gabi has very much been that man for Atletico during this century.
The Madrid native came through the youth ranks at the club, but for a while it looked as though things were never quite going to work out for him. Homegrown players are often the most celebrated, but they can also be the ones who are looked to and blamed when things have gone wrong, and that seemed to be the case with him.
After a couple of seasons in the team, he moved on loan to Getafe and then made the supposedly permanent move to Real Zaragoza, only for good form there to lead to a return to Atletico in 2011. He’s never really looked back.
The 33-year-old has come to represent a vitally important player in the Simeone game plan, with his awareness and ability on the ball always crucial in how his team want to play.
He is acutely aware of his limitations, but he knows how best to utilise his strengths.
With no full international caps to his name, Gabi might not be all that revered in the wider football world, but Atletico fans certainly know how important he is.
2. Diego Godin
The foundation upon which so much of Atletico’s success has been built, Uruguayan defender Diego Godin has blossomed into one of the best centre-backs in world football since his move from Villarreal in 2010.
His defensive position and ability to organise a back four places him right up there with the best defenders to ever play for the club, and he is often the player who will be seen leading Simeone’s side in the type of defensive drills for which they have become so renowned around the world.
What’s more, he often packs a goal threat at the other end.
In the closing stages of the 2013/14 season, Godin’s goal secured the league title in Atletico’s 1-1 draw at Barcelona, before he was seconds away from scoring the winner in the Champions League final before Sergio Ramos grabbed a late equaliser for Real Madrid.
As other players have drifted away from that league-title winning team, Godin has always stayed loyal to Atletico.
He helped them reach the Champions League final last season, and as this campaign hots up, he will again be crucial to the fate of Simeone’s side.
1. Fernando Torres
Sometimes what makes a player great is almost unquantifiable. It’s all about how they make the club’s fans feel.
And Torres’ greatness among Atletico fans can never, ever be denied, because he simply is one of them.
After emerging in the early part of this century, he was always seen as the team’s great hope, their shining beacon and their not-so secret weapon in the search for relevance in the Spanish and European game.
The club pride themselves on their reputation, and so when Torres was coming through the ranks as a teenager, the fact that they were in the second division was a source of great embarrassment.
The forward was seen as the man to get them out of such a dire predicament, and that’s exactly what he did, with his goals and fine performances helping to earn promotion in 2002, before five seasons of steady scoring that helped to establish the club’s position in the Spanish top flight.
Yet the union between club and player always looked destined to end one day.
His move to Liverpool in 2007 was widely accepted as the best thing for him, and after discovering his potential elsewhere, he was welcomed back to the club with open arms in 2015.
He’s still there now, and with 111 goals for Atletico to his name so far, it isn’t just his place in the club’s history books that is assured; it is his place on the front cover of those books.