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Barcelona are a club who rely heavily on their famed youth academy La Masia for top quality players. However, apart from the academy, they are also known to be very active in the transfer market and have signed their fair share of big names.
There are very few players that a club of Barcelona's stature could regret selling as the Catalan club generally do not look to sell a player unless he is deemed to be surplus to requirements.
While the Blaugrana were powerless from stopping Neymar from joining Paris Saint-Germain, as the Ligue 1 club triggered his release clause, several players have been sold rather quickly.
Over the years, they have managed to make a few errors in judgement, which they may come to, or have already come to regret. Here are five players that Barcelona let go of too quickly.
5. Cesc Fabregas
“He is a football player with Barça DNA” – Xavi
“Cesc has a place for Arsenal in his heart, but he has Barcelona in his blood.” – Lionel Messi
After eight long years, the prodigal son returned to what was thought to be well and truly his home. Unfortunately, it was only for an uncomfortable reunion, even if statistics suggested otherwise.
Largely played out of his favoured deep-lying midfield position, he was never made to feel important. Having become a target of the boo-boys by the second season, Fabregas was finally let go by his boyhood club.
With a stellar first season with Chelsea that saw them win the Premier League title with a second on the way in 2016/17, the former La Masia graduate, will surely have people back at the Catalan club wondering if they could have shown more patience with him.
With Xavi gone, the midfield was bereft of creativity and the club could have benefited greatly from the versatility of Fabregas.
4. Alexis Sanchez
After a hugely successful 2014 World Cup and with the form that the Chilean has been hitting consistently at Arsenal, he had to be on the list. In his last year for the Catalans, he scored 21 and assisted 11 goals in all competitions.
He was ranked second in both those categories, only behind Lionel Messi's inhuman 41 goals and Fabregas's total of 14 assists. In his first season with Arsenal, Alexis scored 25 goals in all competitions.
How the club management decided to sell two players who created the most number of goals in the previous season at the same time is baffling. With Alexis Sanchez's departure, Barcelona lost just more than a great attacker as he consistently used to help out the struggling Blaugrana defence with his tireless running.
An attacking force, which added the brilliance of Luis Suarez, when combined with the pace and guile of Alexis could have been absolutely menacing.
3. Yaya Toure
The Ivorian midfielder swapped Barcelona for Manchester City in the summer of 2010. Although used sparingly when in Catalonia, he was part of the historic 2009 Barcelona team which won six trophies in one calendar year.
During his time at Barcelona, he was restricted to a role where he was behind Sergio Busquets as the club's first-choice defensive midfielder and was sometimes used as a backup when the defence needed someone to fill in.
He was widely believed to have been the victim of some of the most blatant and unfortunate favouritism in football when Guardiola persisted with keeping him on the bench despite a string of poor performances from Busquets.
Even the manager Pep Guardiola lamented his loss, admitting that the Ivorian was a key player for the club.
“It's not a good move for us, he is a top player. Without him, it would have been impossible to win seven trophies in two seasons.”
His performances at the Manchester club would have surely left people at Barcelona wondering if maybe they could have done more to keep him, especially when Javier Mascherano initially struggled to justify his selection in Barcelona's midfield while Toure plundered goals for City in two title-winning seasons.
Toure reunited with Guardiola briefly at Manchester City, before moving on to Chinese club Qingdao Huanghai for the twilight years of his career.
2. Samuel Etoo
The Cameroon international won the African Player of the Year for a record three consecutive years during his time at Barcelona. He was the man of the match in the Champions League final victory against Arsenal in 2006 and scored the opener in the 2009 final against Manchester United.
Despite all his laurels, he was forced out of Barcelona due to a rift with Pep Guardiola. Strangely, Guardiola decided to sell Eto'o to Inter Milan for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and also gave Inter €40 million as part of the transfer.
But Eto'o still had plenty to offer, which he proved by winning the Champions League with Inter the following season on his way to becoming the only player to win a treble in consecutive seasons. He was a vital part of the team that defeated Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate in the semi-finals, much to Guardiola's frustration.
1. Ronaldo Nazario
Barcelona signed Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima in the summer of 1996 for a then world-record fee of $19.5 million. During the 1996/97 season, Ronaldo scored 47 goals in 49 games in all competitions.
He led the Catalan side to a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph when he scored the winning goal in the cup final, and also helped them to Copa del Rey and Supercopa de Espana wins.
At the end of 1996, aged 20, Ronaldo became the youngest player to win FIFA World Player of the Year. He also won La Liga top scorer award (Pichichi) in 1997 with 34 goals in 37 games and the European Golden Shoe. Until the 2008/09 season, Ronaldo was the last player to have scored more than 30 goals in La Liga.
Barcelona probably made one of the biggest errors in their transfer history when they allowed Ronaldo to leave due to problems in the negotiation of a new contract at the end of his first season. He went on to win two Ballon d'Or awards in 1997 and 2002 and become one of the greatest players of all time.
What must have hurt the Catalan side the most is seeing him come back to Spain and don the white of Real Madrid.
