One of the biggest elements in modern football is quite easily the transfers and the choices players make in terms of where they would ideally want to play. Transfers become a telling factor in a player’s future and is often forced due to a number of reasons including more playing time, money or simply the need for a fresh start in a new environment. In most cases, these decisions work out in their favour but there have also been instances where it turned out to be a disaster.
Sometimes these transfers propel players to new heights while the other side of the coin promises to completely derail a player’s chances of being at his best. Here we take a look at the players who made the worst transfer moves and sent their careers down a hole:
#10 Giovani dos Santos – Tottenham Hotspur
A lot was promised of a young Giovani dos Santos when he broke into the Barcelona first team in the 2007/08 season but failed to live up to the expectations from there on. Partly, it might have been a case of luck not working in his favour but add that to a disastrous £5.1 million move to Tottenham and there you have his career in a nutshell.
The Mexican was loaned out in three of the four seasons he spent at White Hart Lane and couldn’t manage to score a single goal for the club in his 15 appearances.
Probably a move forced in search of more playing time but looking back at it, he could have developed better under Pep Guardiola during his glory years at the Nou Camp. Dos Santos’ adventures took him back to Spain with Mallorca and Villareal but the player failed to fulfil his potential and is now currently playing in the MLS after joining LA Galaxy in 2015.
#9 Mateja Kezman – Chelsea
When Mateja Kezman arrived in London from PSV Eindhoven, he was considered to be one of the most prolific scorers in Europe. However, his £5.3 million move to Stamford Bridge was a bad decision, to say the least, even though he was a part of the Chelsea side that won the domestic double under Jose Mourinho in 2004/05.
Kezman’s career after joining the Blues can be perfectly summed up in terms of numbers – the player scored more than twice as many goals (105) in his four years before joining Chelsea than he did in seven seasons after coming to London(41), leaving the club after only one year.
Kezman moved on after the horror show at Chelsea but failed to make a lasting impact due to injuries that eventually led to his decline and went on to play for clubs like Fenerbahce and Paris-Saint Germain before calling it a day in South China in 2012. One of the hottest strikers in Europe during his peak bowed down as a mere footnote in the history of the game.
#8 Sergio Canales – Real Madrid
Sergio Canales was a product of the Racing Santander youth academy and was one of the best upcoming stars when he broke into the first team in 2008. In his first full season with the club, the midfielder managed to score six goals and had four assists to his name while playing a key role in helping his team narrowly avoid relegation.
Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid came calling in 2010 and an offer that would tempt any youngster was tabled for the Spaniard and he signed for the Los Blancos in a £5.1 million deal.
However, the dream move halted a career that could have reached great heights after the player was forced to warm the benches at the Santiago Bernabeu. Canales managed only 518 minutes of playing time in his first and only season with the Spanish giants and was loaned out to Valencia before he completed a permanent move in the following year. Soon injuries started to hit him on a regular basis and it led to his downfall.
#7 Juan Sebastian Veron – Manchester United
What could possibly go wrong when you are one of the best midfielders in the world and one of the greatest teams in the world come calling for you? Juan Sebastian Veron would know the answer better than anyone. After a very successful spell in Italy with Lazio, Veron signed for Manchester United for a fee of £28.1 million – a British transfer record back in the day.
However, the Argentine’s life in England didn’t quite go according to plan after he found it difficult to adjust to the pace of the Premier League and he was a passenger when he couldn’t find the same space and time on the ball that he enjoyed in the Serie A.
Injuries took over his career since then and a revival was out of the cards, he signed for Chelsea in 2003 but made only 15 appearances for the club. However, he enjoyed a late career rival with hometown club Estudiantes before deciding to hang up his boots, only to come out of retirement in 2017 to play for the club in the Copa Libertadores.
#6 Emmanuel Petit – FC Barcelona
Emmanuel Petit arrived in England on the backing of a solid reputation in France after captaining the Monaco side to the league title. He re-united with former manager Arsene Wenger, who coached him during his time at Monaco, and played a key role in the Gunners’ double winning season in 1997/98. The Frenchman would go on to make 85 appearances for the club and his abilities were quickly noticed by Barcelona who paid £7 million to acquire his services in 2000.
However, in his first and only season at the Nou Camp, Petit was forced to play a defensive role which prevented him from displaying his quality going forward and a series of injuries that followed meant that he struggled and failed to hold down to a regular place in the team.
In his biography, he also exposed the fact that manager Lorenzo Serra Ferrer didn’t even know what position he played when he joined the team. He eventually returned to London with a move to Chelsea but failed to revive his career after a recurring knee problem and bid goodbye to professional football in 2004.
#5 Mario Balotelli – Liverpool
This inclusion might not come as a surprise to many of us after witnessing Mario Balotelli and his tantrums throughout a controversial career. The Italian made the headlines for all the wrong reasons during his time at Manchester City when he fell out with almost everyone including a training ground bust-up with the then manager Roberto Mancini.
However, the former Golden Boy award winner went back to Italy and rebuilt his stature and image during a decent spell with AC Milan, the club he supported as a kid, scoring 26 goals in the 2013/14 season.
In the following season, Liverpool took the gamble of bringing the hot-headed Italian back to England in a £16 million move to replace the outgoing Luis Suarez. He ended the season with just four goals in his 28 appearances and was touted as one of the worst signings of the season. The striker has since restored some of his reputation with Nice in Ligue 1 last season when he scored 15 goals in 23 appearances but he would be thinking why did he even bother signing for Liverpool in the first place!
#4 Robinho – Manchester City
Before Neymar there was Robinho who displayed magical dribbling skills while having a keen eye for goal at the same time. The forward who was forged in Santos was touted to become the next Ronaldo and was soon picked up by Real Madrid in 2005 where he impressed making over 100 appearances for the club during his three seasons in Spain. However, he was tried as a leverage to try and bring Cristiano Ronaldo to Real in 2008 and due to his frustration he pushed for a move away from Spain and ended up becoming a Manchester City player.
Robinho was unveiled as a City player on the same day the club was taken over by the Arab investment company Abu Dhabi United Group and became a galactico of their own when he signed for €42 million. Despite possessing great ability, he failed to adjust to the weather in England and made only 40 appearances for the club before leaving for AC Milan where he enjoyed his football but failed to stand out as you would expect him to.
Since then, Robinho has failed to recapture the kind of talent he displayed before moving to England.
#3 Anderson – Manchester United
This could come as a slightly surprising inclusion to many considering the fact that he went on to win everything he wanted with Manchester United after joining the Red Devils from Porto in 2007. The midfielder won four league titles, two league cups, successfully converted his penalty in the shoot-out against Chelsea in the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow, and won the Club World Cup the following year.
But the irony is that, he was not as vital as the other players during these glory years for United. Anderson was a decent squad player, a decline considering the fact that United paid €30 million for the 2008 Golden Boy award winner.
He never reached the heights that was expected of him and returned to Brazil in 2015 with Internacional where he has made around 50 appearances for the club. Anderson might not have been on this list if he had done justice to the hype surrounding him, but a move to United certainly got him a lot of trophies.
#2 Andriy Shevchenko – Chelsea
The world was at his feet when Andriy Shevchenko joined Chelsea from AC Milan and till date, this move goes past as one of the most bizarre ones in the history of transfers. Shevchenko was one of the best strikers in the world during his time with Milan winning the Champions League, Scudetto and also winning the Balon D’Or in 2004 for his remarkable efforts for the club.
He scored 127 goals for Milan across all competitions before completing a €43 million move to Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea, who were reportedly even ready to splash out €75.2M plus Hernan Crespo to acquire the Ukranian’s services.
However, Shevchenko failed to light up the Premier League and didn’t even manage to reach double figures in terms of goals during his two seasons at Stamford Bridge. His career quickly settled into a downward spiral and failed to find his feet even at Milan when he was loaned out in 2008. He eventually returned to boyhood club Dynamo Kyiv and enjoyed his last days feeling right at home before hanging up his boots. Maybe he would have been remembered as the world’s best if he never left Milan!
#1 Kaka – Real Madrid
Arguably one of the worst ever transfer decisions, Kaka literally threw his career down the line when he left AC Milan for Real Madrid to become a centrepiece of Florentino Perez’s Galaticos 2.0 back in 2009. During his time at Milan, Kaka was one of the best playmakers in the world and was a pivotal part of the Milan sides that dominated both Italy as well as Europe.
He won the Serie A player of the year award in his debut season with the Italian giants and quickly established himself into a midfield that boasted of names like Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo.
In 2009, Kaka completed a €65 million move to the Bernabeu but failed to fulfill his expectations due to repeated injuries and a few performances that let him down. Soon, he was deemed surplus to the requirements and was offloaded to Milan in 2013 after a disappointing spell with the Los Blancos.
The Brazilian failed to recapture his form thereafter and is currently plying his trade in the MLS with Orlando City. He also made a return to Sao Paulo, where he started off as a player, in a loan spell but has looked nothing like what he was during his prime years in Italy.
