Barcelona’s 10 biggest transfer sale mistakes

Martin Macdonald

18 Oct 2023 02:25 CDT
6 min read

Lionel Messi playing for Barcelona — © ProShots

Barcelona may be going through a comparatively difficult phase because of their financial problems, but the Camp Nou side remain one of the world's greatest clubs, with some outstanding players having graced their side over the years.

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But when a great player joins, he must eventually leave, whether that is the choice of the club or not, such as when Luis Figo and Neymar both saw their release clauses activated by Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain respectively.

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Some departures, however, were undoubtedly the fault of the club and FootballTransfers looks at the departures which Barcelona will forever regret.

Barcelona's 10 biggest sale mistakes

Ronaldo - €28m (Inter, 1997)

Ronaldo was the best player on planet earth in his single season with Barcelona.

Fresh off a Ballon d'Or victory, the Blaugrana had plans to offer the Brazilian wonder a lucrative new contract.

Ronaldo himself believed the deal would be presented at the end of the season, only for Barcelona to allegedly go back on their word about the terms of the deal.

The club's failure to make good on their initial promise meant that Ronaldo pressed to leave, which led to a world-record transfer to Inter. In allowing him to go, they saw the best player of his generation depart.

Cesc Fabregas - FREE (Arsenal, 2003)

Back in 2003, Cesc Fabregas did not believe that Barcelona had mapped out a clear path to the first team for him and so made the brave move to join Arsenal.

The Spaniard would go on to become one of the most creative midfielders the Premier League has ever seen, but as he became a superstar, Barcelona wanted him back.

Soon began a protracted transfer saga in which Barca attempted to woo their former apprentice back.

Eventually, the deal happened, and the club paid big money for a player they once had for nothing.

Gerard Pique - FREE (Man Utd, 2004)

Similar to Fabregas, Gerard Pique left Barcelona for the Premier League in the mid-2000s, only the centre-back joined Manchester United rather than Arsenal.

Unfortunately for Pique, he was unable to establish himself as a first-team player mainly due to the presence of the Rio Ferdinand-Nemanja Vidic partnership.

He would actually win the Premier League and Champions League during his time with Man Utd, albeit he did not play a significant role.

Like with Fabregas, Barcelona bought him back, but they should have recognised his potential and kept him around in the first place instead of being forced to buy him back.

Samuel Eto'o - €20m (Inter, 2009)

In what will go down as one of the best pieces of business in Inter's history (and one of the worst in Barca's) they paid €20m for Samuel Eto'o, while they received €69m for Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2009.

© ProShots - Samuel Eto'o in action for Barcelona

It was a strange move from Pep Guardiola as he relinquished a player who matched his desire to press high, for a player in Ibrahimovic who preferred the ball into his feet, using his body rather than his speed or aggression.

The big Swede simply did not fit in at Barca, while Eto'o went on to help Jose Mourinho's Inter win the treble.

Even if Guardiola saw Messi's future as a central forward at the expense of Eto'o, why bring in Ibrahimovic?

Yaya Toure - €30m (Man City, 2010)

Manchester City has just finished fifth in the Premier League and brought in Yaya Toure from Barcelona for €30m, one of the first major deals of the Sheikh Mansour era.

The Ivorian would go on to become a club legend, winning three Premier League titles and an FA Cup after he gave Barcelona a huge transfer profit following his move from Monaco to Camp Nou in 2007.

However, even though the finances made sense, Toure proved at Man City that his talent was best utilised in more advanced areas. Previously, Barca had used him as a defensive midfielder and even at centre-back.

If Barca had known how much of a powerhouse attacking midfielder he might become, they might have kept him in Catalunya.

Thiago - €25m (Bayern, 2013)

It was seen as a steal when Bayern Munich managed to secure the signature of Thiago Alcantara from Barcelona in 2013.

Though he was viewed as a golden boy at Barca, it proved difficult for him to break into the superb midfield trio of Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Xavi.

However, subsequent purchases of the likes of Paulinho, Andre Gomes and Arturo Vidal show that Barcelona would have been much, much better served asking Thiago to be patient before becoming their main man in the middle of the pitch.

David Villa - €2.1m (Atletico, 2013)

When Barcelona smashed their transfer record to sign Neymar from Santos, it was clear that David Villa's time at the club was up.

The season prior, the Spaniard had struggled with injuries and largely made appearances from the bench, which made it an easy decision for Barca to move him on.

However, the decision to transfer the World Cup winner to a title rival proved to be a poor one as Villa played a part in Atletico Madrid's 2013/14 La Liga triumph in his first season with the club - an embarrassing turn of events.

Dani Alves - FREE (Juventus, 2016)

Joao Cancelo's loan arrival from Manchester City in 2023 was the first time in seven years that Barcelona signed a proper Dani Alves replacement, seven years after his departure.

Their desperation for a quality right-back even saw him return to Camp Nou for a brief spell in 2022.

Widely regarded as one of the best right-backs in history, Barca allowed the Brazilian to leave on a free transfer to Juventus in the summer of 2016.

Rumours of a rift with the board circulated, but erstwhile president Josep Maria Bartomeu would claim that it was actually a personal issue which led to Alves' departure.

Either way, Barcelona should have worked it out and kept Alves around, as subsequent flop right-backs have proven.

Luis Suarez - €9m (Atletico, 2020)

Barcelona did not learn their lesson from selling Villa to Atletico Madrid and did the same with Luis Suarez in 2020.

What makes this situation worse is that Suarez was arguably performing better for Barca than Villa was when the club decided to sell, and again they thought it perfectly acceptable to offload a star player to a title rival.

Crucially, Suarez took the manner of his departure personally and showed Barca what they were missing.

While the Catalan side toiled under Ronald Koeman, Atletico won La Liga, with Suarez scoring 21 goals in 32 games.

Lionel Messi – FREE (PSG, 2021)

The most devastating exit in Barcelona's history came in 2021 when the club's precarious financial position meant they could not renew the contract of arguably the greatest player of all time in Lionel Messi.

The Argentine legend's new deal was expected to be a formality but Barcelona's poor handling of their wage bill saw Messi unable to sign an extension, thus allowing him to leave on a free transfer to PSG.

Barcelona have regretted the decision ever since, doing all they can to bring the forward back to the club, but their financial issues are still persisting – in part due to the loss of revenue from the departure of Messi.

The club's biggest mistake of all was allowing their finances to spiral so out of control that it cost them their best ever player.