Fan Fuel: 10 worst soccer transfers ever

BY JAKE LEWIS – FAN FUEL BLOGGER

Great thing about Football, Calcio, Fussball or Soccer, is that you can just go and buy a player off another team. You don’t have to finish last in your league to get a top young prospect, and you don’t have to worry about a silly salary cap. So what could possibly go wrong?

How about these stories of horror?

10. Jonathan Woodgate from Newcastle to Real Madrid $22 million 2004:


After impressing for Newcastle, and earning an England cap, Real Madrid surprised the football world by signing the oft-injured Woodgate. Indeed he was injured when they bought him, and didn’t play for a full year. In his debut, he scored an own goal and was sent off! One year later Woodgate was moved on for $10 million. A total of 14 games for $12 million.

9. Robbie Keane from Spurs to Liverpool $32 million 2008:

Despite six years at Spurs, the Liverpool fan, Keane, made the jump when Liverpool came knocking. Bought to support Fernando Torres, it quickly became clear that Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, was less than impressed with Robbie. With only occasional playing time, and a poor scoring record, Keane became a peripheral figure. He was then sold back to Spurs in the January transfer window just six months after joining, in one of the Premier Leagues oddest transfer dealings, for $19 million. Robbie Keane cost Liverpool $2.6 million for each of his five goals!

8. Adrian Mutu from Parma to Chelsea $26 million 2003:

Scoring only six goals in 27 league games, Mutu was sacked for failing a drug test. The Romanian claimed he had taken an aphrodisiac, which was in fact cocaine. Fined and banned, and later found to be responsible for re-paying Chelsea the transfer fee, the player has appealed the decision, and Chelsea haven’t seen one penny back. Cost per goal? $4.3 million.

7. Bosko Balaban from Dinamo Zagreb to Aston Villa $9 million 2001:
Not a huge sum of money by today’s standards, but for Villa at the time this was a small fortune, shelled out for a player they hoped would elevate them into the top four. He had scored 38 goals in just 55 appearances for Croatian champions, Zagreb, but was unable to find the net even once for Villa in a two and half year spell at the club – only appearing a remarkable nine times! Villa eventually released him on a free transfer to Belgium champs, Bruges, where he found his form again, knocking in 47 goals in 83 games! Must have been the Birmingham air! Cost per goal? Calculator just says “E”….

6. Juan “Seba” Veron from Lazio to Manchester United $45 million 2001:

The much heralded Argentine, was supposed to bring a level and class and genius to Old Trafford, that had been obviously lacking when United played Real Madrid’s Galacticos in the Champions League. Unfortunately Veron appeared to forget he was any good whenever he pulled on the red shirt, and was a huge disappointment. He played 73 games and scored seven goals, in a two-year spell, before being sold to Chelsea for half the fee paid to Lazio. $3 million per goal, though to be fair to Seba, he wasn’t a striker.

5. Serhiy Rebrov from Dynamo Kiev to Spurs $17 million 2000:

Rebrov had been Andriy Shevchenko’s (more about him later) striking partner at Kiev, but nobody had mentioned to George Graham, that Rebrov was to Shevchenko what Robin is to Batman – just some guy standing near the real action. Rebrov, scored only 10 goals in 60 appearances, and was later released on a free transfer. $1.7 million per goal.

4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan to Barcelona $100 million 2009:
Barcelona gave up Samuel Eto’o as part of this deal, so there was high expectations for what Ibra, might bring to the Camp Nou. But the Big Swede didn’t seem to fit into Pep Guardiolas plans quite as seamlessly as Eto’o had, and after just one season (29 games and 16 goals) he was loaned to AC Milan, and eventually sold for about one third of his original fee. Meanwhile Eto’o scored 33 goals for Milan and won the Champions League! Later he was sold to a Russian team for $39 million. Barcelona gets most things right, but this wasn’t one of them. $3.75 million per goal.

3. Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan to Chelsea $50 million 2006:
Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s manager, made it clear that Shevchenko was never his choice. Rumours persist that club owner Roman Abrahmovic insisted that the Ukrainian was picked more often than Mourinho wanted. Shevchenko had been one of the world’s greatest strikers at Milan, scoring 127 goals, but in London he managed just 22 in two seasons, before being loaned back to Milan, and then released. $2.3 million per goal, and causing Mourinho to leave Chelsea… priceless.

And now the final two, and for me a prediction – not only that they will turn out to be flops, but also that when this happens it will make them the two worst flops of all.

2. Fernando Torres from Liverpool to Chelsea $80 million 2011:
Torres, already a regular starter for now World and European Chamipons, Spain, had a spectacular start to his career in England, racing to 50 goals for Liverpool in record time. Passing records set by Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler and then Michael Owen. The Spaniard however, has slowed down considerably, and become injury prone. When Kenny Dalglish took the reins again at Anfield one of his first acts was to sell Torres for a British transfer record fee to Chelsea. Well it hasn’t gone well so far for Torres. He has survived the change of manager at Stamford Bridge, but has scored just five goals in 30 games. He looks and plays slower than he did two years ago, and he seems to have lost his aggressive and single minded approach to goal scoring. I predict Chelsea will sell him either in January or in the summer.

1. Andy Carroll from Newcastle to Liverpool $56 million 2011:
Having won the Lotto by palming off a fading Torres, Liverpool promptly paid a record transfer fee for an English player, who had only had one half of a premiership season under his belt. Truth is, Andy, who quite apart from being something of a drunken lout off the field, is proving to be one of the worst strikers ever to wear Liverpool’s famous red shirt. Since his transfer he has only four goals. He is slow, has no ball control and despite his height is no better at heading the ball than my 10-year-old. Andy Carroll is so bad, I believe he will cost Kop hero, Dalglish his job. Liverpool fans will shake their heads, but understand completely. It is a disservice to Equus Africanus Asinus to call him a donkey!