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Midfield: Andrea Pirlo
Labelled as ‘the signing of the century’ by legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, quite how Andrea Pirlo was allowed to sign for Juventus in 2011 as a free agent remains a bit of a mystery, and the club that let him go – AC Milan – probably regret doing it to this day.
At the time of the move Pirlo had won 2 Serie A titles and 2 Champions Leagues with Milan, but after injuries curtailed his 2010/11 season, he was deemed surplus to requirements at the age of just 32.
Pirlo was quickly snapped up by Juventus and deployed as a deep-lying playmaker, his favoured position due to his pace eroding somewhat as his career went on.
Unsurprisingly, any ideas about his decline quickly went out of the window when he helped Juventus to the Serie A title in 2011/12, providing the most assists in the league with 13 and completing a ridiculous 2643 passes with an 87% success rate.
Juventus went on to dominate Italian football with Pirlo in a key role, as he won another 3 consecutive Serie A titles with the Old Lady and was named in the league’s Team of the Season in all of his campaigns at the club, as well as picking up a Ballon d’Or nomination in 2012.
By the time he departed Juventus for New York City in 2015, Pirlo had played 164 games for the club, scoring 19 goals and providing 39 assists, winning 7 trophies and helping them to the Champions League final in 2014/15 too. There’s a clear case in fact for him being the best free agent signing in the history of the game.
Midfield: Paul Pogba
French midfielder Paul Pogba is a strange case in that his move as a free agent came largely before he’d even established himself as a top-level player, but he was such a success following his move that the club he left for free ended up breaking the world record transfer fee to bring him back.
Pogba’s story started in 2009, when he moved to Manchester United’s youth academy from French side Le Havre as a highly touted 16-year old prospect.
Despite some controversy over the move, Pogba was expected to work his way into United’s first team at some point in the future. That never really happened though; despite being promised opportunities by boss Alex Ferguson in 2011/12, and the Frenchman refused a new contract in the summer of 2012.
Instead, he made a move to Juventus as a free agent, and evidently the Italian side believed in him a lot more than United had at that point. He made 27 appearances for Juve in his first season there, winning the Serie A title and earning the Golden Boy award for the best young player in Europe in the process.
From there, Pogba went from strength to strength, becoming a key part of Juventus’ midfield and winning another 3 Serie A titles as well as 2 Coppa Italias. He also helped the team to the 2014/15 Champions League final, although they were unable to beat Barcelona.
By the summer of 2016 his profile had raised so much that United were willing to part with £89m to bring him back to the club – leaving Juventus with a huge profit having signed one of the best free agents of the 21st century.
Midfield: Esteban Cambiasso
Like Dani Alves, Argentine midfielder Esteban Cambiasso made two big moves as a free agent in his career, and like Alves, both of them turned out to be pretty successful.
The defensive midfielder first broke through at Real Madrid in the early 2000s, helping them to win the La Liga title in 2002/03, but by the summer of 2004 – arguably due to Real’s Galactico policy, his contract was allowed to expire, and so he moved as a free agent to Inter Milan.
It was during his time at the San Siro that he saw the most success of his career, as he was partnered with his Argentina teammate Juan Sebastian Veron in the centre of midfield, largely playing a more shielding role.
After starting well in 2004/05, winning the Coppa Italia, Cambiasso became practically an ever-present as the Nerazurri went on a true run of dominance in Italy, winning the Serie A title 5 seasons in a row.
2009/10 was Cambiasso’s crowning moment, though; thriving under boss Jose Mourinho, the Argentine played a key role as Inter surprisingly made their way to the final of the Champions League, eventually winning the trophy by defeating Bayern Munich. 4 more seasons at the San Siro followed before Cambiasso was let go at the age of 34, but his story wasn’t finished there.
Instead, he made another free agent move, this time to Leicester City in a bit of a surprise. But despite his advanced age, Cambiasso proved to be a big hit there too; he helped them to a 14th place finish in his only Premier League season, and left the club in the summer of 2015 after being named their Player of the Year.
