4) Fabio Cannavaro
In truth, Fabio Cannavaro cost €10m to sign from Inter but he was signed as part of a player-swap deal that involved reserve goalkeeper Fabian Carini. Technically, Inter signed Carini also for the same price, effectively making both players free transfers. But he did come for free when he joined the club a second time in 2009.
In 2002, Cannavaro was one of Inter’s major signings in the quest to rebuild the club and compete with the Italian giants again. However, the Nerazzurri failed to achieve anything of note and constantly finished second-best to their more illustrious rivals time and again.
When Juventus signed him, he teamed up with former Parma teammate Lilian Thuram in central defence and he had the ever-reliable Gianluigi Buffon behind him to form a formidable defensive wall that saw Juve win two consecutive Serie A titles.
He won the Serie A Defender of the Year award in the two seasons he was with Juve and he also captained Italy to a World Cup triumph in 2006. However, his time at Juve came to an end when the famous Calciopoli scandal relegated the club to Serie B. With no interest in playing in the second division, he moved to Real Madrid – an act that was never forgiven.
Though he initially had a successful career at the Bernabeu, winning two La Liga titles, he had started to decline. At the end of his contract, it was announced that he was moving back to Juventus. But by then he was way past his best and the only memory fans have of him in a Juve shirt that season was the sending off against Fulham that saw his side collapse after being reduced to 10 men.
He never played in Europe again and retired a year later.
