5 forgettable Barcelona signings over the years

Zlatan Ibrahimovic never got on well with manager Pep Guardiola
Zlatan Ibrahimovic never got on well with manager Pep Guardiola

Barcelona have been the most successful club in the past decade. Barcelona’s golden generation boasting the likes of Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Pedro, Xavi and Andres Iniesta has overseen unprecedented success for the club – even by Barcelona’s standards – dominating in Europe and Spain alike.

The bedrock of this success can be attributed to the Blaugrana’s famed La Masia academy, churning out world-class footballers seemingly at will. The long list of graduates includes the aforementioned few along with many others like Pep Guardiola, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Busquets, Carlos Puyol and Victor Valdes.

It is the club’s very identity and is ingrained in its footballing culture and genetics, taking great pride in one of their own contributing to the well-being and success of the club, on the pitch and off it.

With such success, however, comes money and Barcelona have shown over the years that they are not afraid of splashing the cash and signing the most talented and high-profile players on the planet; recent big-money acquisitions of Luis Suarez and Neymar jump into mind.

But not every player who makes the move to Barcelona is a resounding success. Barcelona have made quite a few “dud” signings as we’d like to put it. Here are five transfers that can be classified as questionable at best and downright terrible at worst.


5. Alfonso

Alfonso wasn’t able to recapture his Betis form at Barcelona
Alfonso wasn’t able to recapture his Betis form at Barcelona

Barcelona signed the former Real Madrid youth graduate after one of the most controversial transfers in footballing history; Luis Figo swapping sides in the arch-rivalry that is Real Madrid vs Barcelona.

He was signed in 2000 for €16.5 million from Real Betis after he’d successfully upstaged the club’s most expensive acquisition at the time, Denilson.

The signing proved disastrous for the striker, who managed to net only two goals during his 2-year spell at Barcelona after scoring 57 in 152 appearances for Betis.

After an unsuccessful loan spell at Marseille, he was loaned back to former club Betis.

He constantly struggled with injuries and never managed to establish himself in the first team. He failed to replicate the form that saw him earn a move to Barcelona and after another 45 appearances and ten goals, hung up his boots in 2005.


4. Alexander Hleb

Hleb endured a torrid time at the Catalan giants
Hleb endured a torrid time at the Catalan giants

Arsenal have sold quite a few players to Barcelona over the years, many going on to experience considerable success with the Catalan giants.

Alexander Hleb is not one of them. So, you can understand when he claims that his biggest regret in life was leaving Arsenal for Barcelona; with his career having gone pretty much downhill from there.

He joined the Blaugrana in a deal worth €17million in 2008, and while he regularly featured for Arsenal, he mostly found himself on the bench for Barcelona.

Before his first season ended, he was already looking to join another team. He was loaned out to 3 different clubs the following seasons until his contract was cancelled by mutual consent in 2012.

One of the more astonishing facts about his 4-year contract was that it included a buyout clause for €90 million, which means Barcelona valued him as a world-class player when he first joined them.

After a total of 36 appearances and a total of 0 goals for Barcelona, Hleb’s career has been that of a journeyman.

He has been contracted to 7 different clubs since 2009 and will go down as one of the worst transfers to have transpired in Barcelona’s history.


3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan constantly got into clashes with Pep Guardiola
Zlatan constantly got into clashes with Pep Guardiola

Probably the most surprising inclusion on this list considering that Zlatan was, and still is one of the best strikers on the planet. He scored 21 goals in 45 appearances in his one season for the Catalan giants and helped them to 4 different trophies. So, it seems incredibly harsh to classify him as of their worst ever transfers.

However, the important fact to take into consideration here is the context of his transfer. He joined in 2009 from Inter Milan in exchange for Samuel Eto’o, one of Barcelona’s best-ever strikers. Not only did Eto’o go the other way, but Barca also paid Inter €49.5 million, leaving them in considerable debt.

Eto’o went on to win six further trophies under Jose Mourinho at Inter, forming a key component of their treble-winning side. Zlatan’s time at Barcelona, however, was marred by constant clashes with Pep Guardiola, who preferred a young Lionel Messi in the centre forward position.

His relationship with Guardiola continued to deteriorate, and he was sold to AC Milan the following season for €24 million, less than half of what they’d paid for him the season before.

While some fans might miss him, others weren’t too pleased that he kept trying to hog the limelight.


2. Dmytro Chygrynskiy

Chygrynskiy returned to Shakhtar Donetsk within a season
Chygrynskiy returned to Shakhtar Donetsk within a season

Already injury-prone during his time with Shakhtar Donetsk, he joined Barcelona in 2009 for a fee believed to be around €25 million; in the process becoming the first-ever Ukrainian to play for the Blaugranes. He was highly rated by Pep Guardiola and then-president Joan Laporta.

His performances for the club on the pitch, however, were teetering to the abysmal and Barcelona supporters constantly jeered him.

Things got a lot worse for the centre back, particularly in a match against Sevilla, where his mistake led to a penalty. Though Guardiola came out to publicly back his defender after the match, the writing was on the wall for the Ukrainian.

Chygrynskiy spent a large part of the season on the sidelines through a combination of injury and poor form and featured only 12 times for Barcelona during the year.

One year later, new president, Sandro Rossell sold the centre-back to former club Shakhtar for €15 million, despite Pep’s intention to keep him.

Pep was understandably displeased, but not many fans will shed a tear over someone who barely managed to make any sort of impression on the club.


1. Keirrison

Keirrison did not make a single appearance for the club
Keirrison did not make a single appearance for the club

The undoubted top spot has to go to Keirrison. The one thing everybody else on this list has in common is that they at least ended up playing for the club.

In 2009, Barcelona bought the striker for €14 million after he put in some good performances in the Brazilian league, scoring at a healthy rate for Coritiba and Palmeiras. They then proceeded to loan him to 5 different clubs in 5 years until his contract expired in 2014.

Loan spells at Benfica, Fiorentina, Santos, Cruzeiro and former club Coritiba all saw him fail to impress with the striker constantly underwhelming.

It is believed that Barcelona had loaned him out in the hope that he would perform so well that they could sell him for a profit. In his five years, he failed to make a single appearance due to the incredible talent that was already stacked at the club.

You can’t help but feel bad for him since it’s often a dream to pull on Barcelona’s shirt and play at the Camp Nou. But it seems quite pointless to sign a young player for big money and not have him play a single game for the club.

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Edited by Staff Editor