10) Robinho: £69.6 million
Clubs: Santos, Real Madrid, Manchester City, AC Milan
The diminutive Brazilian’s biggest move came in 2008, where he signed for Man City for £32m to mark the arrival of the club’s mega-rich Qatari owners. The 29-year-old has scored 26 goals in 90 matches for Brazil, and expect the above number to increase when he returns to his homeland this summer.
9) Fernando Torres: £71 million
Clubs: Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea
Liverpool signed the player from his boyhood club Atletico Madrid in 2007 for £21 million, and the Spaniard went on to score 65 league goals for the club, prompting a British record transfer to Chelsea for £50 million. He hasn’t been very good since, though.
8) Ronaldo (fat): £76.6 million
Clubs: Cruzerio, PSV, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Corinthians
If only the legendary striker had remained fit his entire career, goodness knows what he could have become. The sublime forward only made 67 league appearances for Inter Milan between 1997 and 2002, but was still bought for a huge fee in 2002 by Real Madrid after he won the World Cup with Brazil.
7) Christian Vieri: £76.8 million
Clubs: Torino, Piza, Ravenna, Venezia, Atalanta (3), Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Lazio, Inter, Milan, Monaco, Fiorentina
The number of clubs the Italian striker played for, coupled with his £32 million world-record transfer in 1999 to Inter Milan, sees the strangely-accented Australian-Italian come in at number eight.
6) Juan Sebastian Veron: £77.4 million
Club: Estudiantes (2), Boca Juniors, Sampdoria, Parma, Lazio, Man. United, Chelsea, Inter Parma, Lazio, Man United and Chelsea all spent big bucks on the Argentinian midfield maestro, who undoubtedly was more effective in the Italian leagues than he ever was in England.
5) Robbie Keane: £83.7 million
Clubs: Wolves, Coventry, Inter, Leeds, Spurs (2), Liverpool, Celtic, West Ham, LA Galaxy
The Irish man built up his cumulative transfer bulk during a six-month spell at Liverpool, who signed him for £20 million, before shipping him back to Spurs in January for £15 million. Coventry signed him for a record deal as a teenager, prompting Inter Milan to shell out £14 million for him, too.
4) Cristiano Ronaldo: £92.2 million
Clubs: Sporting Lisbon, Man. United, Real Madrid
The world’s most expensive player makes this list after Real Madrid spent a whopping £80 million on the him in 2009, which made Man United an enormous profit.
3) Hernan Crespo: £93.1 million
Club: River Plater, Parma (2), Lazio, Inter Milan (2), Chelsea, AC Milan, Genoa
Was once booed at Parma, but quickly went on to establish himself with the Italians, and moved to Lazio for a world-record £36 million transfer fee in 2000. Chelsea eventually acquired him for £18 million, and despite scoring 26 goals in all competitions in in the 2005-06 season, he went out n loan for the next three years of his contract!
2) Nicolas Anelka: £95.8 million
Clubs: PSG (2), Arsenal, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Man. City, Fenerbahce, Bolton, Chelsea, Shanghai Shenhua, Juventus, West Brom
It’s fair to say that Anelka has ‘done the rounds’! Moving to Real Madrid in 1999 for £22 million, he quickly moved to PSG for a similar prices, before a succession of multi-million pound moves all over Europe and later the Far East.
1) Zlatan Ibrahimovic: £124.3 million
Clubs: Malmo, Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona, Milan, PSG
Unbelievably, this money doesn’t even include the value of Samuel Eto’o, who moved the opposite direction from Barcelona to Inter Milan in 2009. Barcelona reportedly spent £40 million on the player in 2009 and used Eto’o in exchange. Ibra has been signed for over £20 million on four separate occasions throughout his career!
[Fanatix]
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