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Barcelona are one of the most successful clubs in Europe. Along with Real Madrid, the Blaugrana have won 91 titles in various competitions, which is more than that of any other club in the continent's top five leagues.
The 26-time La Liga champions have won 30 Copa Del Rey and five Champions League titles among other domestic and continental honours. Not surprisingly, some of the best players in the game have worn the famous Barcelona jersey.
Five Barcelona players who prospered in pastures anew
The likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique, among others, have achieved stupendous success at Barcelona. However, there are many other skilful players who haven't been as lucky as the aforementioned quintet.
Things didn't quite work out for these players due to a plethora of reasons ranging from lack of enough first-team opportunities, injury issues or falling out with the club's manager. On that note, let us have a look at five former Barcelona players, in no particular order, who left the club and went on to prosper elsewhere.
#1 Mikel Arteta
Present Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta began his professional career with Barcelona B in the Spanish Segunda Division where he played for two seasons.
Despite his potential, however, Arteta struggled for first-team opportunities and was eventually loaned out to Paris St. Germain with whom he made his UEFA Champions League debut. Following further spells with Rangers and Real Sociedad, Arteta moved to the Premier League where he found success at Everton and then at Arsenal.
Arteta initially started out as a defensive midfielder in the Barcelona setup before a move further up the field brought him more success. The Spaniard's skill, vision, passing prowess later saw him flourish in a playmaking role.
In a later interview, Arteta opened up about his Barcelona exit:
"I was playing in Barcelona, and Guardiola and Xavi were ahead of me; it was a complicated situation. By that time I was 17 and Luis Fernandez called me from PSG to sign me. The next day I was already flying to Paris."
After hanging up his boots, Arteta found success in his managerial career with Arsenal with whom he won the FA Cup last season.
#2 Yaya Toure
After commencing his career in his native country, Yaya Toure played in Belgium, Ukraine and Greece before arriving at Barcelona in the summer of 2007.
Toure, who was considered one of the world's best box-to-box midfielders, was part of the treble-winning Barcelona team in 2008-09. But the player apparently fell out of favour with then Blaugrana manager Pep Guardiola that forced him to leave the club in 2011.
With Manchester City, Yaya Toure found great success, scoring 79 goals in eight successful seasons as he excelled in a bevvy of midfield positions owing to his versatility, passing range and ball-distribution prowess.
Toure later revealed that he never wanted to leave Barcelona and wanted to end his career at the club. However, that was not to be as the player soon found himself surplus to requirements at Camp Nou, with a frosty relationship with the manager further exacerbating his situation.
"Whenever I asked him (Guardiola) something, he always gave strange answers. He pretty much ignored me until City's offer came in. That's why I eventually opted to leave. I didn't speak to Guardiola for a year. If he had talked to me, I would have stayed at Barcelona. I did not want to go and wanted to end my career at Barcelona. However, he had no faith in me."
The rise of the younger Sergio Busquets meant that first-team opportunties became rare for Toure. When City came calling, the Ivory Coast midfielder had no second thoughts.
He was being offered a financially better deal, but more importantly, there was the guarantee of first-team football that was most endearing for Toure. For Barcelona as well, it was a win-win situation as they earned close to €30 million for a 'fringe' player.
Toure, on his part, went on to have the most prolific spell of his career with City, and, as destiny would have it, he was reunited with his old boss Guardiola at the Manchester club.
#3 Mauro Icardi
Argentine striker Mauro Icardi followed in the footsteps of his illustrious compatriot Lionel Messi to arrive at Barcelona's famed La Masia youth academy.
Icardi excelled in the club's U-17 and U-19 ranks but a breakthrough with the Barcelona senior team never materialised before he was loaned out to Sampdoria in 2011 who were playing in Serie B at the time. He scored ten goals in his debut Serie A season in 2011-12 before Inter Milan came calling.
The Argentinian, who is renowned for his technical intelligence and scoring prowess, enjoyed a success six-season stint with the Italian giants, scoring 124 goals in over 200 appearances in various competitions before falling out of favour with the club.
Icardi joined Paris St. Germain on loan at the start of the 2019-20 season and hit the ground running. He ended the campaign with 20 goals in 34 games while also featuring in the Champions League final.
The striker expectedly has no regrets about leaving Barcelona as he has gone on to find success at some of the biggest clubs in the world.
"Barcelona's game was very different to my characteristics, and we opted a change to Italian football, which is the one that suits me the most. Leaving Barcelona changed my life. The system of Barcelona changed, as strikers went into the background. In the first team, Samuel Eto'o was moved to the wing, as was David Villa and even [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic spent almost a year on the bench.
"That step to Italian football was decisive and I am convinced that without that decision, today I wouldn't be a professional footballer."
#4 Thiago Alcantara
Thiago Alcantara made his Barcelona debut in 2009 but first-team opportunities were hard to come by during his first two seasons at the club.
The creative playmaker, who is renowned for his dribbling and ball-keeping prowess, saw more game-time in 2011-12 and the season after as he scored seven goals in over 80 appearances for Barcelona during this period.
However, the versatile midfielder was still not an automatic starter. With an eye on making Spain's team for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Alcantara knew that he had to start more often than he was doing.
It was at this time that former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola took over the reins at Bayern Munich. Aware of Alcantara's attributes, the Spanish tactician made the Brazil-born player his first signing at Bavaria, and there would be no looking back for the player after that.
During a hugely successful trophy-laden stint with Bayern, Alcantara was one of the automatic starters in the team. He excelled in a bevvy of midfield positions and won 16 trophies for the Bavarian giants, a tally that included a continental treble last season.
Speaking about his decision to leave Barcelona, Alcantara said that though he was grateful to the Catalan club for giving him the opportunity to play for them, the desire for more first-team football eventually forced him to move on from Camp Nou.
"I have always wanted to play and since that wasn’t possible with Barça I had to leave to find the joy in playing football again. To me playing is more important than winning a trophy. In the end you always ask yourself, ‘To what extent I have contributed to the win?’"
"I will always be grateful to Barcelona, but I left because I didn’t want to be just one of the many. We, the players that were (working to make the first team), always had the dream to reach the first team and, once we get there, we want to play and know that we can become regulars."
#5 Zlatan Ibrahimovich
The much-travelled Zlatan Ibrahimovich landed at Barcelona from Inter Milan in 2009 following a swap deal that involved Samuel Eto'o going the other way.
Ibrahimovich didn't disappoint his newest employers on the goal front, hitting the ground running by scoring five times in as many starts for Barcelona. However, the honeymoon period was soon over as the big Swedish striker was moved away from his preferred centre-forward position as the club's talisman Lionel Messi wished to play there.
Then Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola had no qualms in acceding to Messi's request by asking Ibrahimovich to start wide. The decision expectedly didn't go too well with the former Sweden international. Ibrahimovich's productivity began to dwindle as he couldn't quite strike up a 'connection' with Messi on the field and his relationship with the boss deteriorated beyond repair.
Nevertheless, Ibrahimovich scored a creditable 16 Liga goals, but his Camp Nou days were already numbered. At the end of the season, the Swedish striker had his 'unhappy' stint cut short and moved back to Italy where he joined AC Milan.
The 38-year-old is apparently still not in talking terms with Guardiola, but the Spanish tactician has had only good words to say about the prolific striker.
“I have a lot of respect for Zlatan and what he has done in the football world and his career. He has had a big impact everywhere he has been and he is an amazing talent, one of the best around. The best players always have an impact. The big players always bring their talent to a club immediately. You can see they don’t need time to adapt to a new league or understand another country.”
