Best 'expensive transfer' by non-elites

[Wonder Pigeon]

Looking at the 'Expensive Transfers that Worked' thread got me thinking about big money signings that weren't made by the traditional biggest clubs or the current moneybags. When you look at the list of the biggest transfers of all time, obviously it's primarily the usual suspects - United and City, Real and Barcelona, Juventus, PSG etc.

There are famous flops that went to clubs outside the top bracket - Denilson at Betis, or Mendieta and to a lesser extent Crespo (who did well but won nothing) at Lazio. When you take in the biggest moves to clubs in China, it can be harder to quantify their success to the level and the lesser profile over here, but a lot of them seem to have done just 'fine' - either playing well but not racking up trophies, moving when they're past their best, or not sticking around -would Paulinho be the most successful?

Are there good examples of clubs outside the typical European elites putting their necks out there to make a massive money signing and having it pay off in terms of bringing in trophies, moving them up a level or the player staying on for a long time? Batistuta going to Roma for 35m-ish in 2000 had the RVP effect, getting them over the line for a Serie A. Any others?

 

[MalcolmTucker]

Shearer to Newcastle for £15m

 

[Mick1]

Looking at the 'Expensive Transfers that Worked' thread got me thinking about big money signings that weren't made by the traditional biggest clubs or the current moneybags. When you look at the list of the biggest transfers of all time, obviously it's primarily the usual suspects - United and City, Real and Barcelona, Juventus, PSG etc.

There are famous flops that went to clubs outside the top bracket - Denilson at Betis, or Mendieta and to a lesser extent Crespo (who did well but won nothing) at Lazio. When you take in the biggest moves to clubs in China, it can be harder to quantify their success to the level and the lesser profile over here, but a lot of them seem to have done just 'fine' - either playing well but not racking up trophies, moving when they're past their best, or not sticking around -would Paulinho be the most successful?

Are there good examples of clubs outside the typical European elites putting their necks out there to make a massive money signing and having it pay off in terms of bringing in trophies, moving them up a level or the player staying on for a long time? Batistuta going to Roma for 35m-ish in 2000 had the RVP effect, getting them over the line for a Serie A. Any others?

Ruben Neves to Wolves recently.
Shearer to Newcastle

 

[paraguayo]

Falcao from FC Porto -> Atletico Madrid for £42m.

In 2011 Atleti were nowhere near the elite btw.

 

[TwoSheds]

Berbatov and Modric to Spuds. Aguero and Tevez to City. Torres, Coutinho and Suarez to Liverpool. Haaland to Dortmund. Richarlison to Everton (arguably). Probably a few at Portsmouth under Arry. Higuain to Napoli.

 

[Chipper]

Shearer to Newcastle for £15m

Was going to say the same, and his move to Blackburn. Neither were the traditional elite.

Where Blackburn definitely fall down is the moneybags club part, but then that got me thinking that Newcastle were splashing around a lot of cash in general too. The season before signing Shearer they made big money moves for Les Ferdinand, David Batty and Warren Barton. They also picked up David Ginola and Shaka Hislop for more modest fees. They spent more than any other club in the league both in total expenditure and net. They then go out and break the world record on Shearer and also spend a fair whack on Asprilla the following season. That again made them the top spenders in both ways of looking at it.

Would it be fair to class Newcastle a moneybags club too?

Obviously when it comes down to it no club is really making expensive signings unless they have quite a lot of money and where the exact cut off point as to who is and who isn't a moneybags clubs is subjective/not very clear at all.

 

[Lay]

Ferdinand to Leeds

 

[Kasper]

Everton spending ~35m€ for lukaku in 2014 was risky but paid off for them I'd say.

Leverkusen paying 8,5m€ for Lucio in 2000 was a lot of money for a CB back then but turned out a brilliant buy.
Also Bremen buying Diego for a club record sum of 6m€ (lol) turned out great business. A year later they tried the same for Carlos Alberto and he was a gigantic flop haha.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Lukaku to Everton. One year on loan, then bought him for £28 million. a steady 1 in 2 goal ratio over 4 seasons, sold for nearly triple what they bought him for.

 

[Brightonian]

Falcao from FC Porto -> Atletico Madrid for £42m.

In 2011 Atleti were nowhere near the elite btw.

Yep, in fact that transfer was a big part of what helped them to get there.

 

[Josh 76]

Atletico Madrid signing Joao Felix for £113m.

 

[sun_tzu]

Bruno has been excellent so far but we are still a fair way off being elite

 

[Dante]

Anelka to Bolton?

 

[Invictus]

This is a classic example, of course.

Serie A titles before Maradona's world record transfer: 0
European titles before Maradona's world record transfer: 0

Serie A winners in 1987 and 1990.
UEFA Cup winners in 1989 (overcoming Juventus and Bayern en route to the final).

During Maradona’s seven years, Napoli have taken 200 billion lire in profits; Maradona cost 13 billion.

Link.

 

[André Dominguez]

João Moutinho and James Rodriguez to Mónaco worked just fine.

 

[Gio]

A more common thing before top clubs monopolised the talent.

Maradona to Napoli
Keegan to Hamburg - hadn't finished higher than 6th in 2 decades, won the Bundesliga and reached the final of the European Cup

 

[André Dominguez]

This is a classic example, of course.

Serie A titles before Maradona's world record transfer: 0
European titles before Maradona's world record transfer: 0

Serie A winners in 1987 and 1990.
UEFA Cup winners in 1989 (overcoming Juventus and Bayern en route to the final).

During Maradona’s seven years, Napoli have taken 200 billion lire in profits; Maradona cost 13 billion.

Link.

They also spent a very generous sum for the time in hiring António Carecca and Alemão, who were also two of the best players the market could offer at their positions.

 

[André Dominguez]

A more common thing before top clubs monopolised the talent.

Maradona to Napoli
Keegan to Hamburg - hadn't finished higher than 6th in 2 decades, won the Bundesliga and reached the final of the European Cup

Pre-Bosman rule made the foreign talented players to be spread all over Europe's leagues, because you could only field 3 foreign players simultaneously in a game.

 

[hmchan]

As a Hongkonger who sometimes watches Asian football, I can tell you all physical players are doing well and are pretty successful here. They either have a strong body (e.g. Pelle, Fellaini) or an incredible pace (e.g. Carrasco) which allow them to bully Asian players. Technical players, however, are having nightmares here. They are usually well past their prime and their technical ability has been lost. Forlan, Butt and Kezman were terrible in Hong Kong, while Torres struggled in the J-League.

 

[RUCK4444]

Atletico Madrid signing Joao Felix for £113m.

This still blows my mind

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

Obviously when it comes down to it no club is really making expensive signings unless they have quite a lot of money and where the exact cut off point as to who is and who isn't a moneybags clubs is subjective/not very clear at all.

That's true. I'm thinking of Chelsea post 2003 as my arbitrary cutoff for mega money clubs- obviously Lazio bringing in the likes of Crespo came in because they had big backing, as a lot of Italian clubs did in those days.

 

[Eckers99]

This is a classic example, of course.

Serie A titles before Maradona's world record transfer: 0
European titles before Maradona's world record transfer: 0

Serie A winners in 1987 and 1990.
UEFA Cup winners in 1989 (overcoming Juventus and Bayern en route to the final).

Link.

Impacts don't come much bigger than that do they? I went to Naples a couple of years ago and they still idolise him even now.

Very similar to our love affair with Cantona, only with a slightly more religious fervour.

 

[1950]

In a bit of a roundabound way: Juan Iturbe to Hellas Verona for €15m in 2014. He arrived on loan from Porto for their Serie A comeback in 2013. They had an option to buy, but I don't think anyone at the club seriously considered to trigger it, since it was a huge sum for Verona. Their record transfer at the time was Camoranesi for €7m in 2001 (still #2 to this day), so €15m for a 20-year old after a decade in the nethers of the second and even third division was a ludicrous amount. After a great season it became apparent that big clubs such as Juventus, Atlético and Real Madrid were interested in the player, so Verona triggered the clause with the intention to sell him for a profit. Two weeks later Roma paid €28.5m. It turned out to be an inspired piece of business for Verona as Iturbe failed spectacularly. He is now playing in Mexico.

 

[Patchbeard]

As a Hongkonger who sometimes watches Asian football, I can tell you all physical players are doing well and are pretty successful here. They either have a strong body (e.g. Pelle, Fellaini) or an incredible pace (e.g. Carrasco) which allow them to bully Asian players. Technical players, however, are having nightmares here. They are usually well past their prime and their technical ability has been lost. Forlan, Butt and Kezman were terrible in Hong Kong, while Torres struggled in the J-League.

Crikey, didn't realise Torres went over there, 5 goals in 35 games, not a good return.

Looks like David Villa and Iniesta are doing okay though and would be technical players?

 

[Varun]

VVD and Allison to Pool

 

[RedTiger]

Juninho paulista to Boro and Hagi to Galatasaray.

The Juninho transfer came out of nowhere and really suprised the footballing world. Middlesbrough went on to make 3 cup finals winning one of them.

Hagi was 31 when he moved to Galatasaray and the transfer was seen as a retirement move for him. Hagi went on to win 4 titles in a row and lead Gala to become the first Turkish side to win a European title.

 

[Luke1995]

Willian was involved in quite a few good ones.

Shakhtar Donetsk signed him from Corinthians for 20 million pounds

Shakhtar then sold him to Anzhi years later for 35 million pounds.

Anzhi, despite going into a incredible meltdown, still sold him to Chelsea for 30 million. I'm sure they sold quite a few shirts with Willian's name before that got them the money back...

Overall, he gave a good footballing return to all of these clubs

 

[Luke1995]

Milan signed Ronaldinho for 25 million. You can say that worked to a extent

 

[Rooney in Paris]

Crikey, didn't realise Torres went over there, 5 goals in 35 games, not a good return.

Looks like David Villa and Iniesta are doing okay though and would be technical players?

I don't remember much about Forlan and Butt's level before moving over there, but Torres was burnt out by the time he left, and Kezman had always been rather shit.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Surely Tevez and Mascherano to West Ham?

 

[Riz]

Berbatov and Modric to Spuds. Aguero and Tevez to City. Torres, Coutinho and Suarez to Liverpool. Haaland to Dortmund. Richarlison to Everton (arguably). Probably a few at Portsmouth under Arry. Higuain to Napoli.

I don’t think a lot of these were for big money? Certainly not “expensive” transfers for the clubs involved. Coutinho was £8.5m, Modric was under £20m and Berbatov was about £10m. I don’t think the fee for Haaland was that big either.

 

[hmchan]

Crikey, didn't realise Torres went over there, 5 goals in 35 games, not a good return.

Looks like David Villa and Iniesta are doing okay though and would be technical players?

Torres played alongside Isaac Cuenca, the Barca wonderkid in a team called Sagan Tosu. He was so poor that he announced his retirement in the middle of the season, when the team was in the relegation zone. Funny enough, the team had improved and finished midtable after he left.

I wouldn't say Villa and Iniesta are doing okay. In fact, they were also close to the relegation zone for most of the season. The team started to perform better when Villa was out due to injury. For that kind of money you expect much more than that, and ffs they also signed Vermaelen as if it's a Barca reunion.

 

[SilentWitness]

Lukaku to Everton. One year on loan, then bought him for £28 million. a steady 1 in 2 goal ratio over 4 seasons, sold for nearly triple what they bought him for.

Yep, I reckon there will be a similar scenario with Richarlison.

 

[harms]

Maradona to Napoli can't be beaten, even though they arguably should be included to the big spenders list — they've set the world's transfer record 3 times.

Serie A of the 80's would be the place to watch, with the amount of money they've had and the foreigner's cap.
Just for the scale, the world transfer record:
1982 - £3 million (Maradona to Barca)
1984 - £5 million (Maradona to Napoli)

Leo Júnior — $2 million transfer to Torino in 1984. Torino had finished 2nd next season and Júnior was voted Serie A player of the year.
Zico went to Udinese for $4 million in 1983 (not sure if it should've been a world record or not, but it's not on the wiki's list) and rivalled Platini for being the best player in Serie A at the time. World Soccer named him 1983 World player of the year.

Funnily enough, Udinese didn't have the money, but they've managed to convince their sponsors to pay $2 mil up front to sign him, then sold his image rights for $3 mil (you should include Zico's salary in total costs, which was about a $1 mil a year), got more than $3 mil on season tickets over the course of his stay and also upped the price for the friendlies by 10 times, so in the end they even gained money from that seemingly suicidal move.

--------

For the context — Ronaldo was signed by Inter for £19,5 million in 1997.

Veron's spell in Italy was amazing& In 1998, after playing for Argentina in the 1998 World Cup, he signed for Parma in a £15-million deal. The following year, Parma won the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup. Eriksson then signed him again, this time for Lazio in an £18.1-million deal (€30.00m according to transfermarkt), with Verón reportedly netting a weekly wage of £48,000. He made his debut for Lazio in the Italian side's 1–0 victory over Manchester United in the European Super Cup, in Monaco. In 2000, Verón was the driving force for Lazio as they captured the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup, as he scored 8 goals

The set of Vieri's transfers around that time were insane as well, especially his spell at Atletico (29 goals in 32 appearances after being signed for £12,5 million)

 

[MrMarcello]

The Maradona to Napoli move... how big a club was Napoli then? Was that like the ultimate shock transfer? Was he being rumored to bigger European/Italian clubs at the time?

 

[Baneofthegame]

Maradona to Napoli can't be beaten, even though they arguably should be included to the big spenders list — they've set the world's transfer record 3 times.

Serie A of the 80's would be the place to watch, with the amount of money they've had and the foreigner's cap.
Just for the scale, the world transfer record:
1982 - £3 million (Maradona to Barca)
1984 - £5 million (Maradona to Napoli)

Leo Júnior — $2 million transfer to Torino in 1984. Torino had finished 2nd next season and Júnior was voted Serie A player of the year.
Zico went to Udinese for $4 million in 1983 (not sure if it should've been a world record or not, but it's not on the wiki's list) and rivalled Platini for being the best player in Serie A at the time. World Soccer named him 1983 World player of the year.

Funnily enough, Udinese didn't have the money, but they've managed to convince their sponsors to pay $2 mil up front to sign him, then sold his image rights for $3 mil (you should include Zico's salary in total costs, which was about a $1 mil a year), got more than $3 mil on season tickets over the course of his stay and also upped the price for the friendlies by 10 times, so in the end they even gained money from that seemingly suicidal move.

--------

For the context — Ronaldo was signed by Inter for £19,5 million in 1997.

Veron's spell in Italy was amazing& In 1998, after playing for Argentina in the 1998 World Cup, he signed for Parma in a £15-million deal. The following year, Parma won the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup. Eriksson then signed him again, this time for Lazio in an £18.1-million deal (€30.00m according to transfermarkt), with Verón reportedly netting a weekly wage of £48,000. He made his debut for Lazio in the Italian side's 1–0 victory over Manchester United in the European Super Cup, in Monaco. In 2000, Verón was the driving force for Lazio as they captured the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup, as he scored 8 goals

The set of Vieri's transfers around that time were insane as well, especially his spell at Atletico (29 goals in 32 appearances after being signed for £12,5 million)

Loved Vieri remember having two of his shirts when I was younger.

 

[Green_Red]

Does Robson to United count? Even Cantona to United? I don't think United could be considered elite at the time given how long it had been since they won the league.

 

[RedTiger]

Does Robson to United count? Even Cantona to United? I don't think United could be considered elite at the time given how long it had been since they won the league.

The question is expensive players to non-elite clubs.

 

[GhastlyHun]

De Bruyne to Wolfsburg

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Distinguishing the clubs rightly as non-elites is the key here.

Were the clubs mentioned here really are non-elites at the time the transfers were made eg. Maradona to Napoli, Shearer to Newcastle, Blackburn, etc etc???

I think it'll have to be Tevez to City. At that time, City is in no way elite club.