5 players who fell out of love with their clubs after being linked to another 

#3 Luis Figo

Figo represented Barcelona, that's why his move hurt them so much

This is basically the mother of all transfers to a rival club. The younger ones won’t understand the magnitude of this deal, so here is how I will put it: imagine if Real Madrid paid £199 million to activate Neymar’s buy-out clause and Neymar actually agreed to join them.

Pretty chaotic, isn’t it? The trails of this transfer would have created such a quagmire that the relationship between the two clubs would be at an all-time low – just like it was when Luis Figo joined Real Madrid from Barcelona.

"I did not want to quit Barcelona at the time, I just wanted them to acknowledge my quality. He [Nunez – then sitting Barcelona president] was just saying he would wait for someone to pay my buy-out clause. The Barcelona presidential candidate, Gaspart, wanted me to continue, but I did not trust the promises he had made me. Finally, Perez won the elections at Real and I assumed the responsibility of finalising what Veiga [Figo’s agent] had agreed weeks before.

"I flew to Lisbon the day after the elections, and I went to Veiga's office. When I arrived and entered the room, there were about 10 people sitting around a table, all trying to convince me to sign on that moment. That's when I called my wife and told her, 'That's it, I am joining Real Madrid'. I did not return to Barcelona."

That’s the call of Real Madrid; it only comes once.