You Paid What!? The Top 25 Most Overpriced Transfer Fees
British clubs spent over an astonishing £215 million this past January, and most of that was only on a handful of players. And most of those fees made people sit up and say, "What on earth?!!"
Before you get too excited, there's no Cristiano Ronaldo on this list. Yes he cost £80 million for Real Madrid to get him from Manchester United, but he has shown his worth and definitely has more to show. It's not his fault Barcelona is just plain better.
But anyway, on to the players who cost a ridiculous amount and made everyone the world over do at least a triple take.
25. Joe Cole, Chelsea To Liverpool Free Transfer
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This is just the Reds fan in me, but I still can't get over how absolutely useless Joe Cole has been.
I would've preferred Liverpool give Chelsea £5 million to keep Cole and let the Reds keep Yossi Benayoun.
24. Mesut Ozil, Werder Bremen To Real Madrid €15 Million
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In four short weeks in South Africa, Mesut Ozil went from absolutely nobody to being worth €15 million.
He's young, shows a lot of promise and has plenty of time to prove his worth, but Madrid just jumped the gun with this purchase and Werder Bremen took them for a ride.
23. Ramires, Benfica To Chelsea €22 Million
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Ramires is another young player who has time to merit his price tag, but so far, he's done nothing to please the Chelsea fans who got so used to their mega-rich owner Roman Abramovich splashing buckets of money.
He also didn't come in with a dazzling scoring record to warrant such a price.
He's scored just one goal as a Blue and hasn't been a regular starter, and he cost almost as much as Didier Drogba.
22. Michael Essien, Lyon To Chelsea £24.4 Million
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Michael Essien's transfer saga dragged on and on because he has a knack for scoring big goals for his club.
Unfortunately he also has a knack for injuries and for disappearing from games.
He's a talented player, but he's not worth more to Chelsea than Didier Drogba.
21. Dimitar Berbatov, Tottenham To Manchester United £30.75 Million
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Dimitar Berbatov is a proven goal scorer for every team he's played for, but he took two full years at United to even start meriting his price tag.
His first two seasons with United he was constantly fighting for a starting spot, and no matter who's in the side, if you cost that much, you need to spend a lot of time on the pitch.
He's really shone this season and even taken the spotlight away from Wayne Rooney, on the field at least.
20. Carlos Tevez, Manchester United To Manchester City Reported £25 Million
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Carlos Tevez reportedly cost £25 million, he may have cost much more, but whatever he cost, it's too much to spend on a guy who will likely leave in a year.
City just buys whoever is available, and the guys they spent millions on just months ago are old news and leave for a fraction of their price tag.
19. Glen Johnson, Portsmouth To Liverpool £17.5 Million
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Glen Johnson isn't on here for anything to do with whether or not he can defend. It's because the reasons for this purchase were just so obvious.
Liverpool needed more English players but didn't have any money, so Rafa Benitez had to buy from teams that still owed them money.
Enter Portsmouth (about a third of the fee was covered by money owed to Liverpool from the Peter Crouch transfer) and a player the Reds really didn't need but got for a ridiculous amount.
18. Dani Alves, Sevilla To Barcelona £23 Million
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Yes, he's got great skill, but with the style Barca likes to play, he really doesn't have much of a role.
He's rumored to be leaving Barca in the near future (just a few years after he arrived), and I can't see them breaking even.
17. Xabi Alonso, Liverpool To Real Madrid £30 Million
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Xabi Alonso is a very skilled midfielder but not £30 million skilled. Yes, Liverpool have had some miserable times since he left, but he's really not the reason.
Even now, I just don't see how Alonso, even with his excellent performances for Spain in the World Cup, could cost this much.
16. David Bentley, Blackburn To Tottenham £15 Million
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Tottenham probably fell for Blackburn's asking price just because David Bentley is English, and they thought they could get the goals out of him.
Well, they got three in two and a half years, and then they loaned him out to Birmingham.
15. Alberto Aquilani, Roma To Liverpool £20 Million
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Rafa Benitez payed £20 million for a player who wouldn't be able to play for three months into the season, and then when he was fit, he still never played him.
Then Roy Hodgson came in and loaned him out, and he'll likely stay away. He might've made an impact on Merseyside, but he'll never get the chance to even try to merit his transfer fee.
14. Darren Bent, Sunderland To Aston Villa £24 Million
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How on earth does a club hovering in and around the relegation zone have £24 million to spend on one player?
Yes he's a great goal scorer and all, but he doesn't seem like the player Villa needs to fix all their problems.
13. Marouane Fellaini, Standard Liege To Everton £15 Million
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He's the record signing for Everton, and his only real impact has been in the stands where countless fans where afro wigs in an homage to his hair.
He gets into trouble more often than into good scoring opportunities.
12. Karim Benzema, Lyon To Real Madrid €35 Million
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Karim Benzema was probably the most disappointing signing of Madrid's second Galactico era and was rumored to be outta there just a year later. His performances were so uninspiring, he wasn't selected to the France team for the 2010 World Cup (though he probably doesn't lament that fact).
He has picked up in his second season with Real, but he has still yet to merit such a price.
11. Yaya Toure, Barcelona To Manchester City £24 Million
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Manchester City owners simply wanted to buy the Premier League title, so they went out and bought players who had won titles. In addition to this crazy fee, Toure is also reported to be one of the highest-paid players in England, and like many, he'll probably be relegated to the bench before long and will want to leave.
If this vicious cycle is ever going to stop, City's owners need to run out of money.
10. Javier Mascherano, Liverpool To Barcelona £22 Million
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Javier Mascherano in no way fits into the Barcelona style of play. He is all about defense and crunching tackles. That barely has a place in La Liga.
He's made 14 appearances for the Catalan club, his first of which coincided with Barca's loss to Hercules, the first at the Nou Camp in 16 months.
9. Andriy Shevchenko, AC Milan To Chelsea £30.8 Million
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Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is the one who bought Shevchenko. Then-manager Jose Mourinho clearly didn't want him and neither did the following three.
He spent much of his three years in London injured, unwanted or loaned back to Milan before finally leaving in the summer of 2009.
8. Andy Carroll, Newcastle To Liverpool £35 Million
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Newcastle got away with this ridiculous fee because they knew Liverpool had just received an even more exorbitant fee from Chelsea for Fernando Torres.
Andy Carroll has just half a season of Premier League action to his name, but he's a natural goal scorer and can prove his worth very quickly. He's only 22 and could now give Liverpool his best years and end up looking like a steal for the Reds, but £35 million and the most expensive British player ever is just madness.
7. Emmanuel Adebayor, Arsenal To Manchester City £25 Million
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He's been loaned out to Real Madrid a year and a half later. Great business City.
6. Robinho, Real Madrid To Manchester City £32.5 Million
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Robinho was the first of City's big purchases to proclaim his desire to succeed, hit a rough patch, fall down the pecking order and then leave.
And he won't be last. City has started spending a bit less, but everyone is following in Robinho's footsteps.
5. Peter Crouch, Liverpool To Portsmouth £11 Million
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£11 million, 11 goals scored. Somehow, Portsmouth only lost £1 million when they sold him to Tottenham a year later.
Who knows how much Spurs will lose when they sell him this summer?
4. Robbie Keane, Tottenham To Liverpool £20 Million
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Robbie Keane might not have been such a waste if Rafa Benitez had managed him better, actually let him play and not sent him back to White Hart Lane for an £8 million loss.
He's got a knack for scoring goals, but he just couldn't find it on Merseyside and still can't find it wherever he happens to be loaned out at the moment.
3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Inter Milan To Barcelona €46 Million and Samuel Eto'o
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Ibra played in just 29 matches in his one year at Barca and still scored 16 goals (he even scored some in the Champions League), but he was never the type of player Pep Guardiola wanted.
He didn't fit in the Barca system, and when David Villa was finally signed by the Catalan club before the 2010 World Cup, Ibra didn't have a shot even getting on the bench.
Eto'o meanwhile, did pretty well in his first season with Inter Milan despite being valued at less than Ibra.
2. Fernando Torres, Liverpool To Chlesea £50 Million
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Again it looks like Roman Abramovich has bought a player his manager may not want, and we'll just have to wait and see how this turns out.
Chelsea needed a player under the age of 30, but they bought one who has been injured on and off for the past two and a half years. Torres has also struggled for form since the World Cup.
Last season for Liverpool, he did manage to score 22 goals in just 32 appearances, but would you want to pay £50 million for a guy who will play half the season?
In Chelsea's loss to Liverpool Sunday, Torres barely got a whiff of the ball because Nicolas Anelka couldn't affect the game in any way playing so deep. Carlo Ancelotti made quite a statement taking off the British record signing in favor of Salomon Kalou, who cost just £9 million.
Torres is a natural goal scorer, but he's not in good form at the moment and he's come to a team that doesn't play his system.
Will Torres get the chance to prove his worth, either by changing his game or Ancelotti molding the team around him, or will he be just like Andriy Shevchenko?
1. Kaka, AC Milan To Real Madrid €68.5 Million
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Much like Torres, Kaka has struggled with injuries in recent years but still merited a mammoth transfer fee. His injuries have persisted, and he has made only 27 appearances and scored nine goals for Real Madrid in the last year and a half.
Really, the only reason Kaka is above Torres on this list is he cost a bit more.
It looks as though Kaka will end up being a very expensive, delicate accessory that you're afraid to use too often so you don't harm it, and boy is €68.5 a hefty price to pay for something that spends most of its time on a shelf.
