Most Expensive La Liga Signings of All Clubs Minus Real Madrid and Barcelona

The most expensive La Liga signings of all time are dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona. Well, there's more to Spanish football than just Real, Barça and El Clásico. Here are the 18 other 2013-14 Liga BBVA clubs' record transfer fee.

Almería | Signed Pablo Piatti From Estudiantes For €7M (2008)

• Piatti played 430 minutes during Argentina's triumphant 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup but only registered one assist. Compared to his teammates Sergio Agüero (six goals, four assists), Maximiliano Moralez (four goals, three assists) and Ángel di María (three goals, two assists), Piatti lacked the end product. His displays were akin to Mauro Zárate—a few moments of sublime skill and then anonymity. 
• This foreshadowed Piatti's career with Almería where then manager Hugo Sánchez, one of the greatest finishers of all time with 450 career goals, repeatedly benched Piatti.
• Moved to Valencia in 2011.

Athletic Bilbao | Signed Roberto Ríos From Real Betis For €12M (1997)

• The centre-back was at the time the most expensive Spanish footballer, but injuries curtailed his career. 
• He called it a day at 31 years of age after refusing to take an easy payday at West Bromwich Albion. "I don't want to try and fool anyone," he said, via BBC Sport. "There wouldn't be much time left in the season by the time I was fully fit."
• Retired in 2003.

Atlético Madrid | Signed Radamel Falcao From Porto For €47M (2011)

• The original fee was €40 million rising to €47 million based on performance-related clauses; therefore, Porto made a €43.07 million profit having signed him from River Plate for €3.93 million.
• Falcao scored 70 times in 90 games for Atléti, dominating Athletic Bilbao in the 2012 UEFA Europa League final with a brace and scoring a hat-trick in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup win over Chelsea.
• Sold to Monaco in 2013 for €60 million. 

 Celta Vigo | Signed Benni McCarthy From Ajax For €6M (1999)

• Hat-tricks against Utrecht and De Graafschap alerted Celta to the dynamic South African, who was one of the most exciting prospects in the world.
• Two years later, he was begging to be released. "He is getting 10 minutes here," said his agent, Rob Moore, via BBC Sport. "It has been a nightmare for him [McCarthy]."
  
• Left for Porto where he became a UEFA Champions League winner under José Mourinho.
• Retired in 2013 and is thinking about becoming a manager.

Elche | Signed Tomasz Frankowski From Wisła Kraków For €1.4M (2005)

• He'd scored 156 times for Wisła, including a Champions League goal vs. Barcelona, so Elche were receiving a proven commodity.
• Frankowski had a good run with eight goals in 14 games and was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers the same season. Eighteen months later, he was on the chopping block as Wolves manager Mick McCarthy said, via the Birmingham Mail: "There's not been any interest in Tomasz yet."
  
• Retired in 2013. Writes a football column for Polish tabloid newspaper Fakt.

Espanyol | Signed Maxi Rodríguez From Newell's Old Boys For €6M (2002)

• Scored in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship final win over Ghana. Played alongside Javier Saviola (Golden Ball and Golden Shoe), Andrés D'Alessandro (Silver Ball) and two tournament all-stars in Fabricio Coloccini and Leandro Romagnoli. 
• Sold to Atlético Madrid in 2009. 
• Played three seasons for Liverpool before returning to Newell's Old Boys.

Getafe | Signed Pedro León From Real Madrid For €6M (2013)

• "I don't have to justify Pedro León's absence from the squad," said then Real manager Mourinho, via Goal.com. "You talk of León as if he was Maradona or Zidane."
• León has found solace with Getafe.

Granada | Signed Youssef El-Arabi From Al-Hilal For €4.5M (2012)

• Entertained Prince Abdulrahman bin Musa'ad at Al-Hilal having been one of the standouts during the 2010-11 Ligue 1 season with 17 goals for Caen.
• Last season, El-Arabi scored eight league goals from 55 shots for Granada.

Levante | Signed Pedro León From Murcia For €2.5M (2007)

• He wasn't rated by management with 88.9 percent of his games being sub-affected. 
• Sold to Real Valladolid at a €2.2 million loss. 
• Later rose to prominence with Getafe.

Málaga | Signed Santi Cazorla From Villarreal For €21M (2011)

• A Spanish international, a former Don Balón Spanish Footballer of the Year, ambidextrous, versatile, world-class technique and high football IQ—brilliant signing by Málaga. 
• And, an even better signing by Arsenal as he led the team in league assists (11).
• Ranked the 14th-best Premier League player by Bleacher Report tactical analyst Sam Tighe.

Osasuna | Signed Dady From Belenenses For €3.5M (2007)

• Struggled immensely in La Liga, at one point scoring once in a 21-game stretch.
• Now mainly a supersub for Chinese Super League team Shanghai Shenhua. 

Rayo Vallecano | Signed Elvir Bolić From Fenerbahçe For €2M (2000)

• As a Fenerbahçe player, he famously ended Manchester United's unbeaten home run in European cup competitions with a deflected shot off David May.
• Retired in 2007.

Real Betis | Signed Denílson From São Paulo For €32M (1998)

• Betis broke the world-record transfer fee for Denílson, whose technique and showmanship were Neymar-like.
• Denílson was all hype and his career fizzled out to the degree that Kavala, Xi Măng Hải Phòng and FC Dallas are on his playing CV.
• South American football corespondent Tim Vickery reflected on Denílson's career in 2009, via BBC Sport: "He'd believed all the hype about himself, thought that he was well on the way to being crowned the world's best player, and when he saw that it wasn't going to happen he lost momentum."

Real Sociedad | Signed Darko Kovacevic From Lazio For €13M (2001)

• "He’s huge, he wins headers, he runs into people and he scares opponents," said former Juventus teammate Ciro Ferrara, via Gabriele Marcotti at When Saturday Comes. 
• Kovacevic was a goal-scoring machine at Red Star Belgrade, but he could never dominate to the same extent in better leagues, which was also the case with Darko Pancev.
• Kovacevic was a serviceable striker for Sociedad but failed to live up to expectations at Juve and Lazio.

Real Valladolid | Signed Alberto Bueno From Real Madrid For €3M (2009)

• He displayed high upside at youth level as he shared the Golden Boot with İlhan Parlak during the 2006 Euro U-19s. 
• Bueno was named UEFA.com's 2006 Golden Player.
• Though, he's just another guy in pro football which is why he's been loaned out to Derby County and will be playing for Rayo Vallecano this season. 

Sevilla | Signed Álvaro Negredo From Real Madrid For €15M (2009)

• He never became a Real Madrid regular, but he was identified as a player with a high-transfer stock. 
• Negredo scored 85 times in 180 games including 25 league goals last season. 
• Sold to Manchester City in 2013 for €23M.

Valencia | Signed Joaquín From Real Betis For €25M (2006)

• When Valencia signed him, he had accumulated 10-plus La Liga assists in three of his last four seasons and was in La Furia Roja's setup. 
• He never reached 10 league assists in a season again to justify the €25 million transfer fee.
• Currently on the books of Fiorentina with former Real Madrid prospect Borja Valero.

Villarreal | Signed Nilmar From Internacional For €11M (2009)

• Hindsight bias will say Nilmar was a costly-buy, but in reality, it was a calculated risk on a player with the potential to be one of Europe's best strikers. 
• Sure, there was the red flag of his failures at Lyon; however, Giuseppe Rossi was a Manchester United reject and he scored 32 goals for Villarreal  during the 2010-11 season.
• When adversity set in for Nilmar, he didn't want to fight back, hence why he's effectively semi-retired playing over in the Middle East. 
• In comparison, Rossi, who's suffered back-to-back ACL injuries, is playing for one of Serie A's best clubs in Fiorentina.

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Statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt.co.uk, WhoScored.com and Squawka.com