Striker who’s never played in the Premier League goes for eight figure sum…
Transfer fees in football are getting increasingly absurd.
Fulham, a championship club, have just shelled out £11m on Scottish 27-year-old forward Ross McCormack – who’s never played Premier League football!
The players about to be mentioned all went for crazily inflated transfer fees, based on what they’d actually achieved in their careers at that point.
Denilson – Sao Paulo to Betis for £21m in 1998
Betis, hoping to become a La Liga giant like Real Madrid or Barcelona, made 21-year-old the world’s most expensive player of all time in 1998, for an at the time monstrous fee of £21m. Denilson had only ever played in his native Brazil – and nowhere near justified the enormous transfer fee. Betis were relegated soon after his arrival, and the flop Brazilian went on to endure a journeyman career around the world.
Click through the pages to see the rest of the legendary rip-offs!
Andy Carroll – Newcastle United to Liverpool for £35m in 2011
The most expensive British player in history, Carroll earned a move to Liverpool after scoring the grand total of 14 Premier League goals. Liverpool were ready to pay the money because they’d just received £50m for Fernando Torres, but the amount they agreed to spend on Carroll was simply ludicrous – especially as his physical style didn’t suit their passing style anyway. He was loaned out to West Ham, and then sold to the London club for a £20m loss.
Danny – Dynamo Moscow to Zenit for €30m in 2011
‘Who?’, I hear you ask… Danny flopped in his native Portugal, only making 10 appearances for Sporting until he was sold to Russian side Dynamo. He did well, scoring 16 goals in 97 appearances in the league – but when this prompted Zenit to spend €30m on him in 2008, eyebrows were raised. Now 30, Danny is still at Zenit, and while he’s enjoyed his career there, he’s never proven that he was worth the enormous sum.
Jo – CSKA Moscow to Manchester City for £18m in 2008
Is it really a good idea to shell out monstrous cash on a Brazilian striker playing in the Russian league? No, and this proved to be the case for the Sky Blues. Jo scored the grand total of one Premier League goal for the Citizens, and it’s to the bewilderment of many that he’s actually in Brazil’s World Cup squad right now.
Dmytro Chygrynskiy – Shakhtar to Barcelona for £23m in 2009
This one was a real, real nightmare for Barcelona. The usually faultless Pep Guardiola decided to splash this whopping fee on Chygrynski, after the defender had impressed during an either year stint in Ukraine. At the time, this made him one of the world’s most expensive defenders – but after making just 12 appearances for Barca – he was sent back to Shakhtar about as quickly as he arrived in La Liga.
