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The winter transfer window is upon us and every team in La Liga has started their hunt for players who can improve their respective squads. Some signings in the January transfer window turn out be brilliant while others, not so. As the financial backing of the clubs in La Liga has increased, there are more chances of signings which never prove out to be worthy of happening, as no one in today's transfers really know how much a player is worth. Here we take look at those few stinkers that are bound to happen in football.
Here are the some of the worst January transfers in the La Liga ever:
1) Leo Baptistao
The 2013/14 season was a season to forget for the Brazilian striker Leo Baptistao. Making his name at Rayo Vallecano the previous season in 2012, the then 21-year-old was signed by Atletico Madrid in the summer of the 2013/14 season where he was afforded just 5 league starts that season before being loaned out to a struggling Real Betis side in January of 2014.
Baptistao was expected to kick on down in Seville where he was guaranteed game time and had a chance to be a hero of a side involved in a relegation battle. But it didn't really work out for him and Betis as the youngster took 9 games to get his first and only goal for the club and ended up getting more bookings than goal contributions in the green and white stripes.
Real Betis got relegated that season ending the season at the bottom 15 points off safety whereas Baptistao's former teammates at Atleti celebrated a historic league title win. He probably would have been better off warming the bench for the champions rather than joining Real Betis.
2) Maxi Lopez
Back in 2005, Barcelona conducted a very ineffective transfer by signing Lopez in January from River Plate for 6.5 million Euros.
In truth, the then promising 20-year-old was instantly handed the virtually impossible task of deputizing for the injured Henrik Larsson, so, the move was doomed from the start. Despite scoring an important goal against Chelsea in his Champions League debut, Lopez soon became a permanent fixture on the bench before being emitted from Barcelona squad entirely.
With the returning Henrik Larsson and an emerging Lionel Messi, Lopez was soon deemed to be surplus to requirements at the Camp Nou. Lopez made a total of 19 appearances for Barcelona, registering his only La Liga goal while away on loan for Mallorca and he was eventually offloaded by Barcelona to CSKA Moscow at a loss.
3) Yerry Mina
In January 2018, Barcelona made an even more ineffective signing in the young defender Yerry Mina Signed from Palmeiras for 11.8 million euros.
The Colombian centre back made just 1 appearance in his first 3 months at the Camp Nou. Clearly not ready to step up to the expectations of him at the Blaugrana, Mina eventually reentered the side amid the injury crises at the back end of the season.
With the league title already wrapped up, he was given a rare start against Levante in La Liga who won 5-4 to give the Blaugrana their only defeat in La Liga that season with Mina's performance full of defensive errors.
Despite having an impressive World Cup for Colombia, the 23-year-old was unhappy at Catalonia and Barcelona eventually decided to sell him to Everton for a tasty 20 million Euro profit.
