5 of Barcelona's strangest signings ever

As one of the world’s biggest and most successful clubs, FC Barcelona are no strangers to bringing in some of the world’s best players, whether it’s the likes of Romario and Ronaldo in the 1990’s or today’s big superstars like Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.

Even Barcelona aren’t immune to the odd strange signing, though. Sure, they’ve signed big names over the years that didn’t quite fit in. Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t work out too great for instance – but the following five players were bizarre signings from the moment they arrived.

Here are 5 of the strangest signings in Barcelona history.

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#1: Rustu Recber

An apparent language barrier ruined Rustu's move to the Nou Camp

Turkish goalkeeper Rustu Recber was a man in demand in the early 2000’s, largely due to his heroics in the 2002 World Cup that helped Turkey surprisingly make it all the way to the semi-finals.

After a further season at his longtime club Fenerbahce, Rustu was linked with some of Europe’s biggest clubs in the summer of 2003, but chose to move to Barcelona on a free transfer.

Unfortunately, things got strange for poor Rustu right away. A solid pre-season was curtailed by injury, but despite a quick recovery, manager Frank Rijkaard refused to slot the Turk into Barca’s #1 position for a rather odd reason – he had a poor grasp of the Spanish language.

Surely this would’ve been something Rijkaard would’ve known prior to signing the keeper, but apparently, this wasn’t the case. Despite protesting to the media that a keeper of his reputation should be playing regularly, Rijkaard instead stuck with Victor Valdes.

In the end, Rustu made just 7 appearances for Barca before moving back to Fenerbahce, initially on loan and then in a permanent deal. Quite why Barcelona bothered to sign him in the first place remains a mystery.

#2: Alexander Hleb

Alexander Hleb (left) was quickly deemed surplus to requirements at Barca

By the summer of 2008, Barcelona were certainly no strangers to signing players from Arsenal. Superstars Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Thierry Henry had all made the move from North London to the Nou Camp at various points in the 2000’s.

But, in 2008 the Catalan side decided to move for a much lesser Arsenal name – Belarusian midfielder Alexander Hleb.

While Hleb had made plenty of appearances for Arsenal during his three seasons there, and was a relatively popular man with the Gunners’ fans, quite why Barca wanted him was anyone’s guess.

He certainly wasn’t a key man for Arsenal during his stay as the likes of Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Tomas Rosicky and Cesc Fabregas all tended to play more important roles.

At any rate, Hleb’s move to Barcelona was simply disastrous. He made just 19 starts in Barca’s treble-winning 2008/09 season and failed to score a single goal.

After this, he was quickly deemed surplus to requirements, as he embarked on a series of loan moves to Stuttgart, Birmingham City, and Wolfsburg before making a permanent move to Russian club Krylia Sovetov Samara when his Barca contract was cancelled.

Thankfully, the next player that Barca signed from Arsenal went down a little better. His name was Cesc Fabregas!

#3: Dmytro Chygrynskiy

Dmytro Chygrynskiy struggled to break into Barca's side

On the hunt for a new central defender in the summer of 2009, Barcelona decided to turn to Ukrainian international Dmytro Chygrynskiy, who had played against them in the group stages of the 2008/09 Champions League with Shakhtar Donetsk.

After then helping Shakhtar to a surprising UEFA Cup victory in the same season, Chygrynskiy moved to the Nou Camp and became their first ever Ukrainian player.

Unfortunately, despite being billed as a strong defender with good aerial skills, Chygrynskiy struggled to break into the first team – unsurprisingly given Barcelona’s defence consisted of the great Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique.

He made just 14 appearances for the Catalan club and despite reports suggesting that Pep Guardiola wanted to keep him, for reasons unknown, he was sold back to Shakhtar at the end of the season for a far lower fee than he was signed for, making Shakhtar a nice profit and leaving Barca with some egg on their faces.

#4: Alex Song

Alex Song (left) never looked quite good enough for Barcelona

From a lot of reports, it wasn’t actually supposed to be him. When Barcelona came calling for a player who could play in both midfield and defence in the summer of 2012, they initially looked at signing Javi Martinez, then of Athletic Bilbao.

But when they refused to pay his buyout clause (Bayern Munich did instead) they turned to another player supposedly of the same mold – Alex Song of Arsenal.

The Cameroon international had spent 7 seasons at Arsenal, but had really broken through into the first team in 2008/09, forming a formidable midfield partnership with Cesc Fabregas and contributing to a lot of the Gunners’ attacks.

By 2011/12 he’d practically stepped into Fabregas’ role, and chipped in with 12 assists in 46 appearances. But he never looked quite good enough for a side like Barcelona, which was why their move for him seemed to come from left field.

Unsurprisingly he didn’t go down too well – in midfield he just didn’t seem to fit in with Barca’s style, and when he appeared in their defence, he appeared to be somewhat of a liability. After starting just 15 games in his second season at the Nou Camp he was sold to West Ham – a side where he was clearly a much better fit.

#5: Keirrison

Keirrison never kicked a ball for Barcelona after signing with them in 2009

While Rustu, Hleb, Chygrynskiy, and Song clearly didn’t fit into the Barcelona mould and all struggled during their time at the Nou Camp, at least they actually played some games in the famous Barca shirt. The same cannot be said for Brazilian striker Keirrison, making him perhaps their strangest signing of all time.

As a teenager with Brazilian club Coritiba, Keirrison showed clear potential, scoring 33 goals across two seasons for them.

Although South American football expert Tim Vickery stated that he probably wasn’t ready for European football - made it a huge surprise when Barcelona swooped for him just six months, after he moved to larger Brazilian side Palmeiras.

In the summer of 2009, Barca announced that they’d signed the Brazilian, but due to his raw nature, they decided to allow him to move on loan to gain some experience before attempting to break into the first team.

And that was pretty much that. A loan move to Benfica went wildly wrong, with Keirrison making just 7 appearances and failing to score a single goal. Another loan to Fiorentina went just as badly and from there, the striker moved back to Brazil, finally leaving Barca on a free transfer in 2014 without ever kicking a ball for them.