7 stars who joined their rival and won the title in the very next season

The 2017 summer transfer window is a very good example of how difficult it is to replace one of the biggest stars at a club. Look at Barcelona, they’ve clearly struggled to cope with the departure of Neymar and are being thwarted by Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund in their attempts to sign Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele respectively.

Hence, no fan wants to see the best players leave their beloved club but sometimes it is inevitable and hard to cope with. A quick swing of the eyes towards and we could see Southampton - a club whose fans have been enraged every time a player on the club roster is linked with Liverpool as the Merseyside outfit has poached their best players in all of the last three summer transfer windows.

These situations become even more precarious when the departing player joins a rival club. In most cases, when a player joins a rival club, it is usually not in good terms with their previous employers. There are exceptions, of course, like Nemanja Matic or Juan Mata who were gladly sold to Manchester United by Chelsea (Why? Just why?)

Nevertheless, it is hard to see a player join a rival team and the feeling is worse when they go on to win titles with the new team, especially in the immediate season.

#1 Rio Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand is widely remembered for his 12-year spell with Manchester United between 2002 and 2014.

Back in 2002, Sir Alex Ferguson spent £34 million to secure the coveted English defender from rivals Leeds United and that was a significant figure back then. In fact, it was as big as spending £89 million on Paul Pogba last summer.

The Leeds United and Manchester United rivalry which is also nicknamed the 'Battle of the Roses' - originating from the strong enmity between Lancashire and Yorkshire. During the 1970s, the rivalry extended outside the football field and violent clashes were a common sight.

However, in recent years, Leeds have been languishing in English football’s lower leagues while Manchester United have gone from strength to strength.

Nevertheless, Ferdinand became only the fifth player to directly move from Leeds to Manchester United and the first one since Eric Cantona in 1992. Like Cantona before him, Ferdinand also went on to win the league title with Manchester United in the same season he signed for them.

It also goes without saying that both players now have a long lasting legacy at Old Trafford.

#2 Sol Campbell

Campbell was part of Arsenal's famous Invincibles side

Since 1977, only one player has moved directly from Spurs to Arsenal and that player made 315 appearances in the white of Spurs before the controversial transfer. The player - Sol Campbell.

Campbell had previously stated in an interview that he would never play for the Gunners and there were no speculations linking him with a move to Arsenal even though his contract was due to expire in 2001. Tottenham even offered Campbell a contract that would have made him the club’s highest paid player ever, but he rejected it to join the club’s arch-rivals Arsenal on a free transfer.

Campbell’s decision to join the North London rivals was to play Champions League football regularly and also to win trophies. He did both in his first season with the club as he won the domestic double of the Premier League and the FA Cup.

His most notable season with Arsenal came in 2003-04 when he was part of the famous Invincibles team that went an entire Premier League season unbeaten.

Campbell proved that he made the right decision for his career but Spurs fans will never be able to forget what he did.

#3 Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gotze and Mats Hummels

Bayern drained Dortmund off their best players and thus made it easier to win the league

When Jürgen Klopp took over as Borussia Dortmund manager, the club didn’t have the financial resources it has now. Hence, they scouted some talented youngsters from around the globe, signed them for cheap, developed them and gradually built a title winning squad.

Two back to back Bundesliga titles and a run to the UEFA Champions League final thrust the players into the limelight and slowly, the giants of Europe started poaching their talents one after the other.

In 2011, Nuri Sahin left for Real Madrid and in 2012, Shinji Kagawa moved to Manchester United. However, the real hurt for the Dortmund fans started in 2013 when one of their own, Mario Gotze, left for rivals Bayern Munich weeks before the two teams were due to play in the Champions League final.

A year later, Robert Lewandowski also joined the Bavarians after his contract expired and last summer, Mats Hummels followed suit.

Since 2012, Bayern have won five Bundesliga titles on the trot and naturally, the players who joined Bayern from Dortmund kept on adding to their title count right from the very first season. Gotze won three titles before moving back to Dortmund, Lewandowski won three as well whilst Hummels won his first in the previous season.

#4 Robin van Persie

Van Persie scored 26 Premier League goals in his debut season with Man Utd

When Robin van Persie opted to leave Arsenal and join Manchester United fans, it didn’t go down well with the Arsenal fans and for obvious reasons.

Although Van Persie was 29 and had only one year left on his contract when the move happened, he fetched £22.5 million back in 2012. However, if anyone thought Arsenal got the better deal, then they couldn’t have been more wrong.

The simplest way to put this is Arsenal sold the Premier League title to Manchester United for £22.5 million as the Dutchman scored 26 goals and played all 38 Premier League games en route to securing the title.

The Dutch star was nominated for the PFA Players Player of the Year, but he was beaten to it by a certain Gareth Bale.

Funnily, Van Persie took the Number 20 kit upon joining the Red Devils after assistant coach Rene Meulensteen convinced him that he would help United lift their 20th league title.

#5 Luis Figo

Luis Figo chose the dangerous path between Barcelona and Real Madrid

Luis Figo’s move to Real Madrid was not just a direct move between rivals, it was a move that defined an era at Real Madrid and one that raised the bar of El Clasico.

Figo was an adored member of the Barcelona side during his five-year stint during which he won seven trophies. However, in 2000, a defining change happened in Madrid as Florentino Perez took over President of Real Madrid.

Perez had a dream and the world soon named that dream Galacticos.

Perez was on a mission to assemble a team of superstars that he hoped would take Real Madrid to the pinnacle of club football and the first piece of that puzzle was one that irked Barcelona fans.

Real Madrid activated a release clause in Figo’s contract and in the process broke the world record transfer fee. Something they would also go on to break four more times in the next thirteen years.

Figo became the poster boy of the new Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry and nothing short of a league title would have helped the Los Blancos in his debut season after the furore they caused. He scored 14 goals in his debut season as Real were crowned Spanish champions.

The first match at Nou Camp after this transfer was one that shocked every Real Madrid player as the hatred for Figo created one of the most intimidating atmospheres one could fathom. His second return to the ground produced one of the most iconic images in the history of the rivalry - a pig’s head among the objects that were thrown at Figo.