Figo, Cruyff and 10 players who moved to their rivals

Cameron Smith

• 16 Feb 2024 13:47 GMT
• 6 min read

There is very little loyalty in football, which is why long-serving players are treated as club legends and those who opt to leave are often booed upon their return.

However, there is nothing worse than leaving a club in order to sign for their great rivals.

While many would never agree to such a thing, several high-profile players have chosen to make a cross-rivalry move during their career.

Below, FootballTransfers runs through 10 players who joined their club's great rivals.

Johan Cruyff - Free Transfer (from Ajax to Feyenoord, 1983)

Johan Cruyff is the biggest Ajax icon there is, so it’s hard to imagine him making such a drastic move to their biggest rivals, but that is what he did in 1983.

The move came as a result of disagreements between Cruyff and the Ajax management, and at the end of the 1982-83 season, he moved to Feyenoord, who hadn’t won a league title in nine years.

In his only season at the club, aged 36, he led the team to the Eredivisie title, and although he retired the year after, his impact was big.

Hugo Sanchez - €1.2m (from Atletico Madrid to Real Madrid, 1985)

Every player with over 100 appearances for Atletico Madrid has a plaque outside their Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, but Atleti supporters covered Hugo Sanchez's plaque with litter upon its opening following his 1985 transfer to Real Madrid.

The Mexican was adored by Atletico fans during his time at the club, but ruined any goodwill he'd built up by joining their arch-rivals in the mid-1980s.

Sanchez had scored 75 goals for Atletico, but he is more well-known for his illustrious spell at Real Madrid, in which he bagged 199 goals in 268 games and won five consecutive league titles.

Roberto Baggio - €12.9m (from Fiorentina to Juventus, 1990)

Roberto Baggio had a close connection with the Fiorentina faithful in the five years he was there between 1985 and 1990, even taking them to the UEFA Cup final.

So when he moved to Juventus, his transfer angered the city of Florence, with several fans injuring themselves to protest the move.

Fiorentina President Flavio Pontello even locked himself inside the Stadio Artemio Franchi to avoid a mob from reaching him.

Luis Figo -€60m (from Barcelona to Real Madrid, 2000)

This was the most memorable transfer of Florentino Perez’s first stint as Real Madrid President; he was able to secure the services of one of the world’s best players in Luis Figo from eternal rivals Barcelona.

He made Figo the club’s first Galactico, and it didn’t go down well with the Barcelona faithful, who had adored the Portuguese in years gone by.

In his first visit back to the Camp Nou, he was given plenty of abuse, and even had a severed pig’s head thrown at him when he was taking a corner.

Sol Campbell - Free Transfer (from Tottenham to Arsenal, 2001)

Sol Campbell spent eight years establishing himself as a rock at the back for Tottenham, but he tarnished that legacy when he moved to their biggest rivals, Arsenal, in the summer of 2001.

With his contract running down at White Hart Lane, there was speculation about his future, but no one expected a move to Arsenal, which is why there was so much anger when it was announced.

To this day, Campbell asks why he gets so much vitriol for the move.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic - €24.8m (from Juventus to Inter, 2006)

Juventus faced the biggest consequences due to their involvement in the Calciopoli scandal, with many players leaving in the summer of 2006 to continue their careers in Serie A or other top-flight leagues.

One of the players to leave was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was still emerging as one of Europe’s brightest forwards at the time.

He secured a move to Inter, and ended up winning two more league titles at the club, before joining their fierce rivals Milan later in his career.

Carlos Tevez - €29m (from West Ham to Man City, 2011)

Wait, West Ham and Man City aren't rivals, why is Carlos Tevez on this list?

Well, the Argentine had spent the previous two years on loan at Man Utd, so his permanent move to Man City felt like he had joined directly from the Red Devils

Even though they signed Robinho previously, the signing of Tevez was seen as the first true indication of City’s might.

The club had recently been taken over by the Sheikh Mansour-owned group from Abu Dhabi, and had domestic domination in sight, snapping him away from United, who were in discussions to prolong his stay at Old Trafford.

The famous “Welcome to Manchester” billboard sparked further fury, and the relationship between the two clubs hasn’t been the same since.

Robin van Persie - €30.7m (from Arsenal to Man Utd, 2012)

After Robin van Persie announced he wouldn’t extend his contract at Arsenal, clubs around Europe paid attention, hoping to secure the forward on a cut-price deal.

Manchester United pounced, adding the Dutchman to their squad in their hopes of winning the Premier League title that season, having lost the previous one in the final seconds of the season through Sergio Aguero.

The move paid off – in Van Persie’s first season, he was the league’s top scorer and pushed the Red Devils to Sir Alex Ferguson’s final championship in charge of the club.

Mario Gotze - €37m (from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, 2013)

It wasn’t uncommon to see Borussia Dortmund players move to Bayern Munich in the 2010s, but this was the move that stung the most.

With Dortmund set to meet Bayern in a few weeks at Wembley in the Champions League final of 2013, Bayern announced the transfer of Gotze out of nowhere, sparking a fierce reaction.

Manager Jurgen Klopp wasn’t happy with the timing either, and Dortmund asked for an extra security presence at their training ground to avoid a physical altercation.

Gonzalo Higuain - €90m (from Napoli to Juventus, 2016)

There isn’t a club Napoli dislike more than Juventus, so when Gonzalo Higuain made the decision to leave Naples for Turin, the reaction wasn’t a surprise.

Higuain was Napoli’s most prolific goal-scorer at the time, and was close to leading the team to a Serie A title in the previous season, with many feeling they were close to winning it in the coming years.

Those plans fell apart after the move, and Higuain moved to Juventus where he ended up winning the league on multiple occasions as well as playing in the Champions League final.