Money makes the world of sport go round, this is why many brands crave partnership with the big teams as a way to further popularize and foster their business.

In this article we shall be unraveling the top 10 most expensive flops in soccer and we know you must be praying your team should not be among them, but trust me no club will escape it as no manager is a magician to be able to decipher a flop from a distance.

Most times football lovers and fans of various football clubs around the globe believe that the more expensive a player, the better his performance. Unfortunately, not all big-money signings turn out successful in their new club. Some may require more than a season to prove their worth while others never did.

In football, spending big does not guarantee success. 90minsoccer outlined below, some of the top 10 biggest transfers in football that later turned out to be outrageously costly mistakes.

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Why Are They Big Money Flops in Soccer

The reason why some football players are called expensive or big-money flops in football is due to the singular fact that every player signed into a club at a mouth-watering sum is expected to deliver as such player is seen as an asset to the club.

Some of these expensive players did well to impress in their first season but end up meeting their waterloo in the following season or two. Without wasting much of your time let’s dive into the top most expensive flops in soccer in the world today.

13. Zlatan Ibrahimovic 

Transfer: Inter – Barcelona (2009)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the first in our net. The Swedish striker is known and loved by football fans for his pride and ego in front of the microphone as he was never careful in choosing his words when being interviewed.

He is a genius and an absolute legend of the game of football. However, his move to Barcelona in 2019 almost ruined his career as he had a most embarrassing outing bad enough to land him among the top 15 flops in soccer.

It can be recalled that Barca didn’t just pay Inter a whooping €69.5m (£59m/$75m) for Ibrahimovic, but also added their 2009 Champions League hero Samuel Eto’o alongside the cash to ensure they landed the ace striker at Camp Nuo. A deal they will forever regret.

Embarrassingly, Ibrahimovic was able to net only 21 goals in all competitions but was all over the media for the wrong purpose as the world of football witnessed the greatest personality clash in football history.

The Swede had countless rifts with the then Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola after Ibrahimovic accused him of having “no balls” and “sh*tting himself” in front of his former boss Jose Mourinho.

12. Romelu Lukaku: Everton – Man Utd (2017)

Romelu Lukaku is very unfortunate when it comes to the transfer market business. This becomes evident as the striker appeared twice on our list of top flops in soccer in the world.

Romelu Lukaku’s predicament first started at Old Trafford when the Belgian joined Manchester United in 2017 from Everton for a bank-breaking fee of £75m ($94m).

It was surprising and no one expected it as the Belgium international had proven himself in the Premier League while playing with both West Brom and Everton.

Lukaku’s first season at Old Trafford wasn’t bad at all as the ace striker scored 10 goals in his first nine appearances for Manchester United, breaking Bobby Charlton’s legendary record at the club.

However, during his second season at Manchester, Lukaku began to struggle to find the back of the net. After he finally managed to end a 12-game drought under Jose Mourinho, Lukaku was unlucky as the change of manager of the club also mean a change in playing time for the striker. Lukaku saw less and less playing time under the new Norwegian manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

While Lukaku feels he was disrespected and poorly treated by the Norwegian, many United fans, including Gary Neville, believe he was not good enough to lead the Manchester United attack line.

11. Kepa Arizabalaga: Athletic Club – Chelsea (2018)

Kepa Arizabalaga became the world’s most expensive goalkeeper in football following his record-breaking £72m moves from the Spanish side Athletic club to Chelsea.

It was expected that Kepa will be efficient and emerge the best goalkeeper but the reverse was the case. Since the arrival of Edouard Mendy whose price was one-third of Kepa’s fee, Kepa became a second choice option for the blues.

According to reports, Kepa is likely to exit the club this summer with the next destination yet to be announced. Meanwhile, his stay at Chelsea will forever be remembered for his Carabao Cup drama.

Back in 2019, Kepa shamefully refused to be substituted in the Carabao final which ought not to be so of any player irrespective of the reasons attached. Also in 2022, Kepa made an embarrassing out in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool where he failed to make a single save during the penalty shoot-out and was also responsible for their loss as he bulleted his spot-kick into space.

9. Nicolas Pepe: Lille – Arsenal (2019)

In 2019 Arsenal took a bold step of breaking their bank to splash a whooping £72m ($90m) to sign Nicolas Pepe from Lille. Upon his arrival, everyone believed he is going to perform as expected considering his blissful career at Lille in the French Ligue 1.

At the end of the 2021-22 season, Arsenal fans were singing praises of their unsung hero, but his glory days never last long. He gradually started struggling to find the back of the net, thereby losing his place in the starting eleven of the team.

However, Pepe managed to score one goal in the 2021-22 campaign, as his place in the starting line-up has long been taken by younger and better players.

8. James Rodriguez: Monaco – Real Madrid (2014)

Real Madrid’s interest in James Rodriguez started when the club’s President Florentino Perez picked interest in the young skillful Colombian during Colombia’s quarter-finals display in the 2014 World Cup.

Coincidentally, the attacking midfielder has had a keen interest in playing for the Los Blancos someday. When interest came from the Spanish giants, James’s move to the Santiago Bernabeu became inevitable.

James Rodriguez joined the Galacticos for a record fee of €80m (£68m/$86m) from Monaco, a move most football lovers believed will be worth the spending considering the ability of the midfielder to convert goals from unimaginable positions.

No doubt, their guess was right, during his first season at Madrid, James lived up to expectations as he nets in 17 goals in all competitions in the 2014-15 campaign as a midfielder.

However, the arrival of Zinedine Zidane as the new coach of the club in 2016 marked a crucial turning point in Madrid’s modern history, but also dent James’s career at Bernabeu.

James rarely featured in games under the Frenchman, it can be recalled that at a time Zidane claimed that James had asked not to be included in a game against Athletic Club.

James ended up playing a chunk part of his career on loan at Bayern Munich, his final season at Munich saw him feature in only 8 games and later exit the club as a free agent.

7. Romelu Lukaku: Inter – Chelsea (2021)

Lukaku is one unlucky player in the transferred business as he appears again on the top 7 most expensive flops in football. The heavy-weight striker had a fine form at Inter and decided to return to England, this time around to Chelsea which he said he has returned to complete the “unfinished business” in Chelsea.

Romelu Luka signed for Chelsea for a record fee of £97.5m ($119m) from the Italian side Inter Milan. In his first season at Stamford Bridge looks like the Belgian attacker meant every word he said before returning to Chelsea, as he finished the 2020-21 campaign as the club’s top scorer with 24 goals and 11 assists. Unfortunately, his second season turned out worse than the first.

Scoring 15 goals in 44 appearances was not a bad record for an attacker but Lukaku only had himself to blame for not being careful with his choice of words during an interview with Sky Sport Italia in the middle of the 2021/22 season where he professed his undying love for former club Inter and, even went as far as criticizing Thomas Tuchel’s tactics.

Since that incident, Lukaku has lost the trust of his coach and most Chelsea fans, as he is now considering a loan move back to San Siro in the summer transfer window.

6. Harry Maguire: Leicester – Man Utd (2019)

In the 2019 transfer window, Manchester United were not careful in spending on whichever player they dimmed fit to be part of the squad as they splashed an exorbitant £80m ($100m) on Harry Maguire, an amount good enough to land the Leicester defender at Old Trafford.

No one would ever think it will be a waste of money as the England defender had proved himself while at Leicester to the point that renowned coach  Pep Guardiola was also in the race to sign him in 2019.

In an interview, Maguire claims he chose Manchester United over Manchester City but in reality, United offered more than City and as the market goes, the highest bidder always wins the race.

Harry Maguire has had a handful of abuses from fans at United over the past three years the latest of which was the death threat he received that left him out of the club’s squad for some matches.

Maguire is more of a victim of circumstance as his career is equally suffering from United’s trophy-less spell and seeing the club making him a captain looks completely ridiculous.

5. Eden Hazard: Chelsea – Real Madrid (2019)

It seems 2019 is not a good year for the football business, again another big-money signing flopped at his new club and this time it is Eden Hazard. Hazard joined Real Madrid from Chelsea for €100 million (£88m/$112m), a move that turned out to be doomed from the very moment the Chelsea ace winger turned up overweight for pre-season training.

Nature wasn’t on his side as his career at Santiago Bernabeu was thwarted by a series of incessant injuries compared to his injury-free outing at Chelsea.

Even when fit and tried to prove himself as a player who performed excellently during his seven years spell at Chelsea, he only got disappointed and frustrated and his sparks are long gone.

Irrespective of the fact that he wasn’t up to expectations, Hazard has done well in his football career by adding several important trophies to his cabinet while at Real Madrid.

4. Paul Pogba: Juventus – Man Utd (2016)

Manchester United’s deal with Paul Pogba is indeed a loss for the club who lost Paul Pogba for nothing in 2012 when he joined Juventus on a free transfer. In 2016, the English giants re-signed Pogba from Juventus for a world-record fee of £89.5m. Ten years later, it’s happened again as Pogba is planning on exiting the club on a free transfer.

The fans have long given up hope on Paul Pogba whom they believed has lost his place in the team, some irate supporters of the team booed and abused the french man during their clash with Norwich last season showing their dissatisfaction with the young midfielder.

No one will be happy spending a fortune on a valuable asset that will lose value within a twinkling of an eye. Pogba’s six years at Old Trafford only added one Europa League title, one Carabao Cup, and a series of pitiful performances and injury worries.

3.Ousmane Dembele: Dortmund – Barcelona (2017)

Barcelona found itself in a very tight spot after the exit of Neymar Jnr to Paris Saint-Germain in the 2017 summer transfer window.

Of course, it was a good business as they had received a world-record fee for the Brazilian veteran striker, but every club in the world knew they had a fat purse and are willing to spend as they were desperate to sign Neymar’s replacement.

Indeed, Dortmund were the lucky one, they saw Barcelona coming for their Ousmane Dembele and need not be informed before they inflated the price of the french man who just had one season in the German Bundesliga.

Barcelona splashed a whooping €105m (£90m/$112m) to land Dembele at Camp Nuo. A deal they now lived to regret.
Worst still after five years plagued by injury and ill-discipline at the club, Dembele is set to leave on a free transfer.

2. Antoine Griezmann: Atletico Madrid – Barcelona (2019)

In 2018 Antoine Griezmann rejected a €100m (£86m/$107m) transfer to Barcelona, which he publicly stated in a video documentary shared by Barcelona defender Gerard Pique.

This singular act got the club’s fans and wished to have nothing to do with the Atletico Madrid veteran striker.

Explainable, Barcelona went for the french man for a fee of €120m (£100m/$130m) the following year, hoping the striker’s capabilities would be worth the insult in the viral video.

Unluckily for him, The magnificent attacker enjoyed a moment at Camp Nou before descending to mediocrity. His average performance for the club saw him crawling back to Real Madrid in the 2021 transfer window after which he later re-joined Atletico Madrid on loan with the possibility of making a permanent transfer.

1. Philippe Coutinho: Liverpool – Barcelona (2018)

Philippe Coutinho’s transfer was the best of all transfers in Liverpool’s history, but the turned out to be the worst for Barcelona.

Remember in 2018, Barcelona paid a mouth-watering sum of €120m (£100m/$130m) – plus €40m (£34m/$43m) in potential bonuses – to land Coutinho at Camp Nuo.

Josep Maria Bartomeu didn’t care to know if the player has a place in his squad but went out of his way to ensure the Brazilian featured in his formidable squad. Liverpool on the other hand saw a bid too good to turn down. 

It can be recalled that the most Coutinho’s most significant contribution during his four years of sojourn at the book was scoring two goals against his team in 2020 while he was on loan at Bayern Munich.

After spending years trying to offload Coutinho, they let him join Aston Villa for just €20m (£17m/$21.5m) in 2022 as they desperately tried to restore some financial order at Camp Nou after very nearly going bankrupt under Bartomeu.