Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Nedved: The incredible list of £30million-plus transfers that happened BEFORE 2003
These days football clubs will drop £30million on a player only halfway out the womb.
But back in the day, and by day in mean anytime before 2003, you had to be a seriously high profile player to be worthy of such a price tag. Zinedine Zidane joined Real Madrid from Juventus in 2001.
Incredibly, Andriy Shevchenkos doomed move to Chelsea is the only one of the 50 most expensive transfers ever to occur between 2002 and 2008; but 11 happened prior to that.
Here we marvel at the magnificence of those 11 transfers and, in some instances, ponder how much the fee would equate to in modern dosh, what with inflation and all that. 1999 – Christian Vieri .
He scored 259 career goals but all he wanted was to open the batting in an Ashes Test for Australia.
Everyones favourite Italian target man with an Australian twang to his accent is the only man to have demanded over €40million (£30m at the time) in the halcyon days before the Millennium bug infected us all.
Lazio sold Vieri to Inter Milan a year after purchasing him for €25million as the San Siro residents attempted their own Galacticos project.
He scored 123 goals in 190 games over six years but only got one trophy to show for it, a Coppa Italia in his last season. 2000 – Luis Figo.
Nice kit, be a shame if someone were to get pig blood on it…. The transfer that made the Portuguese winger a magnet for severed pig heads.
Figo did the unthinkable at the turn of the century when he swapped Barcelona for Real Madrid.
A €62million payoff (then £37. 4m) wasnt enough to cushion the blow for Barca fans who would rather eat a kilo of their own faeces than speak his name… probably. 2000 – Hernan Crespo.
Football peaked when Crespo and Salas played together. We dare you to think of the long-locked Argentine forward and not whistle the Football Italia theme music.
Crespo was part of a formidable Parma side which also included Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon and Juan Sebastian Veron.
5million (then £36m) and Crespo repaid them by banging in 26 Serie A goals to take the Golden Boot (or Capocannoniere for the purists out there).
2001 – Zinedine Zidane. But why did he have to be No5?.
€75million (£46m) was an obscene amount of money to spend on a human who kicks a leather sack of air around a rectangle-shaped field in 2001. But if anyone justified such spending it was the masterful Zizou.
Real Madrid poached the Frenchman from Juventus a year after he was named Player of the Tournament at Euro 2000. Taking into account inflation, this transfer would be the fourth highest of all time. 2001 – Gianluigi Buffon.
You: Say the first thing that comes into your head. Ready? Clean sheet… Me: Gigi Buffon. This transfer is arguably the most remarkable in football history.
Juventus paid €53million (then £33m) to Parma for a GOALKEEPER in 2001!. Buffon remained the most costly keeper in history until Manchester City swooped for Ederson this summer… although that was a lower figure in Euros.
Given that hes still one of the best in the world at 39-years-old you have to say it was a wise investment. 2001 – Gaizka Mendieta.
Shut your eyes and remember the Valencia years. Just how did Mendieta go from being the sixth most expensive player in history to being loaned to Middlesbrough in just two years?.
The Spanish midfielder was a sensation for Valencia but flopped for Lazio who probably still regret the €48million (£30m) they paid for him.
He scored zero goals in 31 games for the Rome club having averaged a goal every three games in his last two seasons in Spain. 2001 – Juan Sebastian Veron.
This should have worked. Many Premier League loyalists will never know how good the Little Witch actually was. He was Parma and Lazios heartbeat but after Man United paid the latter €45million (then £28. 1m), something about the English soil sapped his magic.
To this day, Sir Alex Ferguson defends the transfer and reinforces his belief in Verons ability but most consider him one of Uniteds biggest flops.
Quirky fact, hes officially signed for Argentine club Estudiantes four times in his career (five if you count his loan deal). 2001 – Rui Costa.
Currently getting this made into a poster for the office. The man too cool for shinpads.
Fiorentina desperately needed some cash and so they were forced to sell their best asset to AC Milan for €44million (£28m). Costas effortless brilliance helped Milan win the Coppa Italia and Champions League in 2003 then Serie A the following season.
2001 – Pavel Nedved.
Old football > New football. This is the fifth time Lazio have appeared on this list as either buyer or seller. The Rome club were the ones pocketing the moolah on this occasion as Juventus handed over €48million (£30m) for the Czech midfielder.
Two years later Nedved reached his irresistible peak and hoarded a ton of individual awards, including a little known gong known as the Ballon dOr. 2002 – Rio Ferdinand.
This wasnt quite Figo levels of betrayal but when the best English defender around traded Yorkshire for Lancashire he made a few thousand enemies for life.
Leeds fan welcomed Man Uniteds Ferdinand back to Elland Road with a host of Judas chants and a few unsavoury banners. The €48million (£30m) man didnt mind too much though, especially when the trophies started rolling in.
Revisiting our old pal inflation, Fergie paid the equivalent of £45million in 2017 money.
The best No9 of all time. No nostalgic football list is complete without the original Ronaldo.
The prolific Brazilian forward twice had the pleasure of breaking the world transfer record (PSV to Barcelona and Barcelona to Inter) but the highest fee paid for him came courtesy of Real Madrid.
He followed the aforementioned Figo and Zidane in becoming a Galactico after a €46million (£29m) move to the Spanish capital from Inter. Ronaldo joined just after firing Brazil to their fifth World Cup, not bad for a bloke with dodgy knees.
Ronaldo No 9 SV.
For more infomation >> (50 KILLS PLUS) THE ULTIMATUM (CSGO GAMEPLAY) - Duration: 10:37. 
For more infomation >> FAITES POUSSER vos CHEVEUX PLUS VITE avec CETTE HUILE MAGIQUE - Duration: 2:17. 
For more infomation >> Kia cee'd Sportswagon 1.6 GDI PLUS PACK - Duration: 0:54. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét