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Player transfers are always exciting. The anticipation and the payoff are all things that football fans get a kick out of. Football players also seek and sometimes secure dream moves to clubs that they would have dreamt of playing for.
However, this world is not exactly a dreamland and it's not all sunshine and rainbows. As such, sometimes life scripts tragedies instead of fairytales. Some players move to a different club and burgeon into world-class players. Some others, however, end up having their progress impeded after a joining a new club.
This can happen due to a multitude of reasons. On that note, let's take a look at some transfers that did not benefit the player or the club and in fact ended up damaging the player's career.
#5 Robinho to Manchester City
Robinho was billed to be the successor to the likes of Ronaldinho and Ronaldo (O Fenomeno). The nimble-footed Brazilian was Manchester City's first major signing under the new Middle-East owners and they were immediately lauded for the kind of ambition they showed to rope in Robinho from Real Madrid for £32.5 million.
The Brazilian was an exciting prospect and hit the ground running at the Etihad. He scored 14 goals in his first season and added much needed creativity to the Cityzens. However, he faded almost immediately after and scored just one goal in his sophomore season before being shipped back to his homeland on loan.
He was subsequently sold to AC Milan where he endured a dismal spell, scoring just 25 goals from 108 games. For all the promise that Robinho showed in his early days, he was reduced to an ordinary striker after his initial days at Manchester City.
#4 Kaka to Real Madrid
Kaka was perhaps the best footballer on the planet before Lionel Messi and Ronaldo took over. He was absolutely sublime at AC Milan and led from the front as the Rossoneri made it two UEFA Champions League finals.
Real Madrid saw a Galactico signing in Kaka and scooped him up for £68.5 million in 2009. The sum they paid was reflective of both Real Madrid's ambitions and Kaka's abilities. After all, Kaka had won the Ballon d'Or in 2007.
Kaka's move to Real Madrid did not work out though. At Real Madrid, Kaka was a shadow of the player that once slalomed through defences like knife through hot butter and was eventually overshadowed by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso.
As such, the move which was initially seen as the final step towards the pinnacle for Kaka is now looked at with disappointment.
#3 Eden Hazard to Real Madrid
Eden Hazard gave nightmares to Premier League defenders for close to a decade. The attacker was one of the finest to grace the English top-flight since the turn of the millennium and delivered consistently for the Blues over the course of his stay at Stamford Bridge, winning a Champions League title, two Premier League titles, two FA Cups and two Europa Leagues.
Real Madrid had always been a dream destination for Eden Hazard and when they finally came knocking in the summer of 2019, Chelsea caved and decided to cash in on the Belgian. It was the signing that was expected to give Real Madrid the kind of returns they got from buying a certain Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in 2009.
However, everything that has happened subsequently has been anticlimactic. Hazard's stay at Real Madrid has been blighted by injuries so far. He underperformed heavily in his first season and scored just one goal from 16 appearances in the La Liga.
Hazard is yet to hit his stride and if you look at how well he was doing at Chelsea, the lows that he has hit since Real Madrid would warrant the conclusion that Eden Hazard's dream switch hasn't worked out and has in fact, hampered his career.
#2 Fernando Torres to Chelsea
If you had just started following Fernando Torres after he joined Chelsea, you will be excused for wondering what the hype was all about. The Spaniard was an absolute menace in the Premier League when he was at Liverpool and used to be a pain in the neck of some of the best defenders in the world.
Fernando Torres was one of the best marksmen in the world when he was tearing it up at Anfield and even humbled the likes of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand regularly. He was third in the 2008 Ballon d'Or race. However, his downfall was abrupt and was even at the receiving end of a lot of jokes and disrespect.
However, he did win the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup with Chelsea. So let's just say that he did get something out of the move ultimately.
#1 Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona
As far as transfer sagas are concerned, Antoine Griezmann's move to Barcelona would be that one dragged out festival movie that just irks you with its pace and its focus on the buildup and then ultimately fizzles out without a payoff.
Griezmann had even rubbed his current employers the wrong way prior to joining, filming an entire documentary on why he decided to reject Barcelona when they first came calling for him in 2018. However, the Cules decided to pay up the next summer and signed Griezmann for a sum of £120 million.
Griezmann has been a disappointment since joining Barcelona and has now fallen down the pecking order with talented teenagers taking over alongside Messi in Ronald Koeman's frontline. There were suggestions that Griezmann was struggling because he was used in a wide role as opposed to his preferred central one.
However, Griezmann did nothing of note even when deployed down the centre and his numbers have come nowhere close to what we've seen from him during his best days at Atletico Madrid.
He looks out of place at Barcelona, finding it hard to get with the program. The Frenchman seemed to have been hitting his peak and was one of France's best players in their World Cup triumph before moving to Barcelona. Now he just looks like an expensive reject.
In his first season at the Camp Nou, Griezmann scored just nine goals and provided four assists across 35 appearances. Well, that just sums it up, doesn't it?
