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Over the years, Barcelona have undoubtedly become famed as a club that produces its own talent – the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and of course, Lionel Messi all came from the La Masia production line and have gone on to have great success with the Catalan club.
However, the Spanish giants are also no strangers to spending major money to bring in established talents. Maybe they’re not as renowned for this as the likes of Real Madrid, AC Milan and Manchester City, but over the years they’ve definitely splashed the cash.
With the recent signing of Frenkie de Jong for €75m, it’s time to look at Barcelona’s top ten most expensive signings – and how they fared at the Nou Camp.
#10 Marc Overmars - €40m
Flying Dutch winger Marc Overmars was signed by Barcelona for a massive fee – at the time – of around €40m in July 2000. Overmars, who became the most expensive Dutch player of all time with the move, was signed in a double swoop from Arsenal that also saw French midfielder Emmanuel Petit arrive at the Nou Camp.
The transfer came at the peak of Overmars’ powers, as he’d won the Premier League and FA Cup double with the Gunners in 1997/98 and had scored 41 goals across his three seasons at the club. At Barcelona though, the Dutchman had a largely indifferent time, as injuries and changes in management and tactics meant he was somewhat inconsistent.
Incredibly, Overmars never won a single trophy during his time at Barcelona, and while he remained a well-respected player, with just 19 goals across his 4 seasons in Spain it’s hard to judge him as anything but a disappointment given his hefty transfer fee..
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#9 Paulinho - €40m
Fans of Tottenham Hotspur were utterly gobsmacked in the summer of 2017 when it was announced that Barcelona had paid a massive €40m to bring Brazilian midfielder Paulinho to the Nou Camp from Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande. After all, Spurs fans remembered him largely as a flop who failed to live up to his £17m price tag and was sold to Guangzhou after just 2 seasons in the Premier League.
Quite why Barca chose to sign the Brazilian was anyone’s guess; he’d performed well for Guangzhou over his 3 years there, but judging a player based on their form in a far lower-level league like the Chinese Super League was always going to be a major risk.
As it was, Paulinho proved to be a decent signing for the Catalan giants. The Brazilian appeared in 49 games across all competitions including 34 league games, scored 9 goals and received praise for his performances as Barca ended up winning both La Liga and the Copa del Rey.
Strangely enough though, the Brazilian ended up moving back to Guangzhou on loan in the summer of 2018, and then made the move permanent – for a fee of €42m – a couple of weeks ago, meaning he only completed one season at the Nou Camp.
#8 David Villa - €40m
David Villa was a hugely established striker by the time he made his €40m move to Barcelona from Valencia in May 2010 – the 2009/10 season saw him score 28 goals in 45 games, and over the course of his 5 seasons at the club, he’d hit 129 goals in 225 games – an average of 1.7 goals per game. And a few months after his transfer, he won the World Cup with Spain and scored 5 goals in the tournament.
His time at Barcelona was also hugely successful – 35,000 fans packed the Nou Camp to see his presentation, and his debut game saw him win his first trophy with the club – the Supercopa de Espana. Villa went on to score on his debut for Barca in both La Liga and the UEFA Champions League, and the club ended up winning both trophies that season, with Villa delivering 23 goals.
2011/12 saw his season curtailed by a broken tibia, but he made a successful return in 2012/13, scoring 16 goals in all competitions and helping Barcelona win La Liga again. Many of Villa’s appearances came from the bench, however, and he departed for Atletico Madrid at the end of the season.
Still, it’d be hard to call him anything but a success at the Nou Camp – his first season there arguably marked the peak of his career.
#7 Malcom - €41m
One of the more recent signings on this list, Brazilian winger Malcom was signed by Barcelona for a fee of €41m from Bordeaux in the summer of 2018. At just 21 he brought a pretty stellar reputation with him to the Nou Camp, as he’d been outstanding for Bordeaux throughout the 2017/18 season, scoring 12 goals and contributing 7 assists in 35 league games.
Unfortunately, the Brazilian hasn’t started life so well at his new club. Thus far Malcom has made just 1 start in the league for Barcelona, and even off the substitutes’ bench he’s seen his playing time largely curtailed – he’s completed just 118 minutes in La Liga thus far in 2018/19.
Being a relatively young player, there’s still the chance that Malcom could kick on at the Nou Camp and become a success, but right now it isn’t looking likely, with the Brazilian being linked to clubs like Tottenham, Arsenal and Everton during this transfer window with both loan and permanent moves being mooted. It’s too early to write him off just yet, but it’s not looking good.
#6 Zlatan Ibrahimovic - €69.5m
One of the greatest strikers of his generation, Zlatan Ibrahimovic made his way to Barcelona from Inter Milan in the summer of 2009 for a fee of €69.5m – with Samuel Eto’o heading the other way. 2008/09 had seen Ibrahimovic lead Inter to the Scudetto with a haul of 25 goals, and he’d been named both Footballer of the Year and Foreign Footballer of the Year in Serie A for his exploits.
The big Swede was meant to be the final jewel in Pep Guardiola’s crown at the Nou Camp, but the move didn’t work out quite as well as it’d been planned. Sure, he had some incredible high points – his famous winner against Real Madrid in El Clasico, his 5 goals in his first 5 league matches, setting a new record – and he won La Liga in his debut season, but his time at the Nou Camp also ended on a sour note.
Ibrahimovic infamously fell out with Guardiola following Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final exit at the hands of his old club, Inter Milan, and while his 21 goals in 45 games was a relatively impressive total, he never truly fit in at the Nou Camp and was loaned to AC Milan in the summer of 2010, and eventually sold there at the end of 2010/11.
Due to his success while he was at the club it’s hard to call Ibrahimovic a flop, but he certainly didn’t live up to his huge price tag either.
#5 Frenkie De Jong - €75m
It says a lot about the talents of Dutch midfielder Frenkie De Jong that Barcelona have been willing to spend €75m – more than they paid for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa – to bring him to the Nou Camp. Of course, the transfer market has hugely inflated and De Jong’s €75m fee isn’t huge in comparison to some of the others being bandied around these days, but it’s still a lot of money for someone who thus far at least has only shown potential.
Still, his potential is undoubtedly huge – a skilled midfielder already capable of controlling a game at the age of just 21, De Jong has made 17 league appearances for Ajax thus far this season, scoring 3 goals and making 1 assist. He’s also got a pass success rate of 92.3%, and an average rating of 7.56 on WhoScored.com.
Quite how he’ll do under the bright lights at the Nou Camp in 2019/20 is anyone’s guess right now, but there will undoubtedly be a lot of pressure on him. If he succeeds, he could prove to be a key player for Barca for years to come.
#4 Luis Suarez - €81.7m
Uruguayan hitman Luis Suarez might’ve begun his Barcelona career under somewhat of a black cloud – he signed with the club in July 2014 but was unable to make his debut until October of that year due to his suspension following a biting incident in that summer’s World Cup – but nobody can say he hasn’t been a success over the 4 and a half seasons that have followed at the Nou Camp.
Suarez has hit goals at a simply insane rate since joining Barcelona – he’s got 167 in 225 games, an average of over a goal a game – and in his most prolific season, 2015/16, he scored a ridiculous 59 goals across all competitions in 53 games. Along the way he’s won 3 La Liga titles, 4 Copa del Rey titles and 1 Champions League.
At 32 years old some observers would claim the Uruguayan is reaching the end of his prime or has already gone past that point, and yet he’s already scored 15 goals in 20 league games this season alone – including a hat-trick against Real Madrid, making him only the second player to score 3 goals in El Clasico since Romario in 1994.
Essentially, Suarez is one of the best strikers of his generation and his best years have come at Barcelona. His €81.7m fee was big, but it’s certainly been money well spent.
#3 Neymar - €88.2m
The transfer of Brazilian superstar Neymar from Santos to Barcelona in the summer of 2013 was probably one of the most controversial in the history of the game – initially reported as being for a fee of around €57m, the striker, in fact, cost Barca around €40m more due to a payment made to the player’s parents. The whole mess landed the club in a heap of trouble and saw them charged with tax fraud, but on the pitch, Neymar was a huge success.
The Brazilian took time to settle into the Nou Camp, and 2013/14 was somewhat of a disappointing season for him as he scored just 9 goals in 41 games. By 2014/15 though he’d found his feet, and he formed arguably the most dangerous goalscoring trio ever alongside Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi. Neymar hit 39 goals that season as Barca won La Liga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.
His exploits continued throughout his remaining time at the Nou Camp, as he came 3rd in the 2015 Ballon d’Or, won another domestic double in 2015/16 and in 2016/17, he helped Barca to pull off the biggest comeback in Champions League history when they overturned a 4-0 first leg deficit against Paris St. Germain, beating them 6-1 to go into the Quarter-Finals.
That was evidently an audition of sorts, as PSG ended up breaking the world record transfer fee to sign him for €222m in the summer of 2017 – meaning Barca more than got their money’s worth out of a tremendous player.
#2 Ousmane Dembele - €120m
With the €222m from the sale of Neymar burning a proverbial hole in Barca’s pocket in the summer of 2017, their first big signing was French striker Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund for a massive fee of €120m – instantly making the then-20-year old the second-most expensive player of all time. It was a huge risk given he’d only had one outstanding season in the Bundesliga, and the jury is still out as to whether his price will prove to be a waste or a steal.
His first season certainly wasn’t a huge success – he suffered a hamstring injury in his first league game and was instantly ruled out for 4 months, and although he returned and ended up winning La Liga with his new side, he only scored 4 goals in his 24 appearances for Barca.
2018/19 has been looking better for Dembele – he’s already scored 13 goals in all competitions across 27 games, a far better return than his debut season, and he currently has the third-highest WhoScored.com average rating at the club, behind only Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. It’ll take a lot for him to live up to such a huge fee, but it’s impossible to write him off yet.
#1 Philippe Coutinho - €135m
Another post-Neymar sale move, Brazilian creative midfielder Philippe Coutinho is Barcelona’s most expensive signing, as it took a huge €135m to pry him away from Liverpool in January 2018. Coutinho had been phenomenal at Liverpool over his 6 seasons there, contributing with plenty of goals and assists and being named Player of the Year in both 2014/15 and 2015/16.
Coutinho did relatively well in his first half-season at the Nou Camp – he scored 8 goals and contributed 5 assists in just 18 games – but he’s found things slightly more tricky this season and has thus far only scored 4 league goals, his last one coming in October. He did score against Real Madrid in Barca’s 5-0 win over them, but he’s also only started 12 games, too.
Whether Coutinho is struggling to cope with the pressure at the Nou Camp or he’s simply not managed to get himself fit following a handful of injuries is unknown, but the truth is he hasn’t shown his Liverpool form at Barcelona just yet. Due to his huge transfer fee though, he’ll surely be given time to succeed in the near future.
