5 controversial signings made by Barcelona in recent years

#3. Arda Turan

Barcelona had a clause to sell Turan back to Atletico Madrid before he even played for the club

Considering how badly Arda Turan flopped at Barcelona, the trouble they went through to sign him is surely not worth the effort.

Barcelona signed Turan in the summer of 2015, but since they were serving a transfer ban, the club couldn’t register the player for another six months. Hence, Turan didn’t play professionally during this period.

Now, coming to the transfer. Barcelona signed the player during the build-up to the voting for their presidential elections and the club rule prevent them from signing players during this period.

The club’s interim management completed the deal after Josep Maria Bartomeu stepped down to run for re-elections. However, he pushed for the transfer arguing that then manager, Luis Enrique, requested for the player amidst interest from Chelsea and PSG.

So what did Barcelona do? They inserted a clause in the Turkish midfielder’s contract allowing the Catalan club to sell the player back to Atletico Madrid before 20 July 2015, two days after the announcements of the presidential election results.

Barcelona could sell the player back to Atletico Madrid for “the fixed fee minus 10 percent option costs."

The transfer didn’t go down with other candidates like Joan Laporta and Agusti Benedito. The former said:

"It's something improper. If he thought they had to sign Arda, he should have done it before resigning. It's out of order, this sense of urgency ... and the only explanation is that it favours the candidature of Bartomeu."

The latter even hinted that he would exercise the option to send the player back to Atletico Madrid.

"We don't agree with Arda's signing but rather another player with a different profile"

Thankfully for Turan, Bartomeu won the election and he remained at Barcelona.