Author: Mudeet Arora

The world has seen its share of massive transfers over the years, however, some of them won trophies and broke world records, whereas others turned out to be some of the worst transfers in football history.

Although this may be true, clubs spend huge amounts of money in their quest to sign the best and top talent in the land.

As a matter of fact, no matter how individually perfect a player may be, if he doesn’t seem to adjust to the club’s footballing philosophy, he’s a flop!

For this purpose, we at BestofBets give out our opinion on 30 such footballers along with their transfer cost who we think are the worst transfers in football history!

30 worst transfers in football history and their cost

30. Nicolas Pepe – Lille to Arsenal, 2019 – €80 million

29. Ricardo Quaresma – Porto to Inter, 2008 – €24.60 million

28. Harry Maguire – Leicester City to Manchester United, 2019 – €87 million

27. Kaka – Milan to Real Madrid, 2009 – €67 million

26. Jonathan Woodgate – Newcastle United to Real Madrid, 2004 – €18.30 million

25. Jackson Martinez – FC Porto to Atletico Madrid, 2015 – €35 million

24. Jese Rodriguez – Real Madrid to PSG, 2016 – €25 million

23. Leonardo Bonucci – Juventus to Milan, 2017 – €42 million

22. Eliaquim Mangala – Porto to Manchester City, 2014 – €45 million

21. Massimo Taibi – Venezia to Manchester United, 1999 – Free transfer

20. Kaka – Milan to Real Madrid, 2009 – €67 million

19. Harry Maguire – Leicester City to Manchester United, 2019 – €87 million

18. Luka Jovic – Eintracht Frankfurt to Real Madrid, 2019 – €63 million

17. Mario Balotelli – Milan to Liverpool, 2014 – €20 million

16. Lazar Markovic – Benfica to Liverpool, 2014 – €25 million

15. Shkodran Mustafi – Valencia to Arsenal, 2016 – €41 million

14. Andriy Shevchenko – Milan to Chelsea, 2006 – €43.88 million

13. Kepa – Athletic Club to Chelsea, 2018 – €80 million

12. Ousmane Dembele – Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona, 2017 – €140 million

11. Bebe – Vitoria de Guimaraes to Manchester United, 2010 – €8.80 million

10. Fernando Torres – Liverpool to Chelsea, 2011 – €58.50 million

9. Andy Carroll – Newcastle United to Liverpool, 2011 – €41 million

8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Inter to Barcelona, 2010 – €69.50 million

7. Angel Di Maria – Real Madrid to Manchester United, 2014 – €75 million

6. Paul Pogba – Juventus to Manchester United, 2016 – €105 million

5. Alexis Sanchez – Arsenal to Manchester United, 2018 – €34 million (exchange with Henrikh Mkhitaryan moving to Arsenal at the same cost)

4. Romelu Lukaku – Inter to Chelsea, 2021 – €113 million

3. Philippe Coutinho – Liverpool to Barcelona, 2018 – €135 million

2. Eden Hazard – Chelsea to Real Madrid, 2019 – €115 million

1. Antoine Griezmann – Atletico Madrid to Barcelona, 2021 – €120 million

*All transfer figures courtesy of Transfermarkt

30 worst transfers in football history and their cost

Although these players may not have succeeded in their big money failed transfers to their new clubs, most of them indeed left those clubs to either return back to their old clubs, or start a new challenge elsewhere.

They may be mentioned time to time in discussions of them being flops at those clubs, but there is no doubt a redemption arc follows sooner rather than later.

You can check more of our content like this on BestofBets’ football section.