Real Madrid awards 2023-24: Best & worst player, best & worst transfer, top scorer

Updated: 25 May 2024 21:32 BST
5 min read

Jude Bellingham, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Real Madrid, 2023/24 — © IMAGO

Real Madrid had an eminently successful season and could yet crown it with their 15th Champions League triumph.

Los Blancos comfortably marched to another LaLiga title and did so, for the most part, in style. Jude Bellingham proved a spectacular summer signing and Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and even Brahim Diaz, who returned from a two-year loan at AC Milan, all had a brilliant campaign.

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We have to be honest, this article shouldn't be named Real Madrid awards but rather Jude Bellingham awards such has been the Englishman's impact. Nevertheless, there are also other players mentioned here - and not always for positive reasons.

Below, FootballTransfers runs through our Real Madrid awards for the 2023-24 campaign...

Real Madrid's Player of the Season

As mentioned, Bellingham, Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo all enjoyed a very good season, with the first two in particular putting up absurd numbers. However, we have gotten used to this from Vini Jr, who has been starring for Los Blancos for some time.

What nobody expected before the season was that Bellingham would go toe-to-toe with the Brazilian in terms of goals and assists. In fact, at the time of writing, the two have the same number of goals (23), while the Englishman has one more assist (12) than the winger. Therefore, Bellingham, who arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu as a box-to-box midfielder, is our Real Madrid Player of the Season.

Real Madrid's Flop of the Season

Despite Real Madrid's great season, there are a couple of players that could be mentioned here. Summer signings Kepa Arrizabalaga and Fran Garcia, for example, are two names that spring to mind. The first was supposed to replace the injured Thibaut Courtois but eventually lost his place to nominal number two Andriy Lunin.

Garcia, meanwhile, was re-signed from Rayo Vallecano and should have gone on to become the club's first-choice left-back. He did not, however, manage to achieve this, with the previously much-maligned Ferland Mendy easily keeping Garcia out of the team. Neither of these two are our Flop of the Season.

Instead, we have gone for Dani Ceballos. The former Arsenal loanee barely played during the 22/23 season and had the chance to leave the club in the summer, with several Premier League and LaLiga sides showing interest. Inexplicably, however, he decided to extend his contract, likely because he hoped to be able to win himself a place in the team with Luka Modric and the soon-to-be-retired Toni Kroos not getting any younger.

Ceballos' fortunes did not improve in 23/24, however, and he still spent most of the time either on the bench or out of the side altogether. Another year wasted.

Real Madrid's Top Scorer

This one is very straightforward. As mentioned above, Bellingham has been Real Madrid's most prolific scorer. At the time of writing, the 20-year-old boasts 23 goals and 12 assists, which is one more than Vinicius Jr, who has the same number of goals.

Rodygo and Espanyol loanee Joselu both netted 17 times, while Diaz scored 12. Wonderkid Arda Guler has six goals despite playing fewer than 500 minutes of football.

Real Madrid's Best Transfer

This award also has to go to Bellingham. It is perhaps not an outrageous claim to say that nobody in the history of football ever repaid such a massive transfer fee in such a short period of time. Bellingham cost Real Madrid €103 million upfront, with the fee still rising if they win the Champions League.

The Englishman had an immediate impact and swiftly became a fan favourite. Especially in the early parts of the campaign, Bellingham was simply unstoppable.

Real Madrid's Worst Transfer

As mentioned in the Flop of the Season section, both Kepa and Garcia did not cover themselves in glory in 23/24. We have decided to go with Kepa despite the fact that he only arrived on loan from Chelsea. His stint at Real has nicely illustrated his quite tragic fall from grace.

Still the world's most expensive goalkeeper, the Basque has never managed to justify that price tag and his career has gone downhill since joining Chelsea. The fact that he arrived as Real's undisputed number one in the absence of Courtois and still managed to lose his place is obviously testament to Lunin but also pretty embarrassing.

Real Madrid's Best Youngster

It feels strange to call Jude Bellingham a youngster considering that he has been a regular first-team player for what feels like a decade, but the midfielder is, incredibly, still only 20 years of age - and will be for another month.

There aren't even any other realistic candidates for this award given that Real Madrid don't necessarily rely on youth even if their team has gotten increasingly younger in recent seasons. Arda Guler, despite his stunning end to the season, simply didn't play enough. Nico Paz is highly rated but he featured even less than Guler. Eduardo Camavinga didn't have a particularly impressive campaign.