Cristiano Ronaldo completed his move to Al Nassr on Tuesday 3rd, signing a two-year deal with the Saudi club.
It remains to be a massive signing for Al Nassr but many will call Ronaldo’s move a downgrade due to his status. For a player who has been always mentioned alongside the name Lionel Messi, it was expected he would remain in Europe and continue setting new records as he does. However, that will not be the case now;
We take a look at the worst transfers in football history so far;
Paul Pogba
Pogba completed his return to Manchester United in 2016 for a club record fee of €89 million. The Frenchman was tipped to become a superstar at Old Trafford but things didn’t turn out in a positive way.
The 29-year-old managed 157 appearances in the Premier League. He managed to score 29 goals and provide 38 assists. His tally included seven penalties.
The Frenchman then decided to switch clubs again and returned to Juventus.
Alvaro Morata
Morata moved from Real Madrid to Chelsea for a reported fee of €60 million. With his head high to make an impact at Chelsea, Morata became a laughing stock due to his lazy misses in the Premier League.
The main question was, why did Chelsea decide to replace the former with the latter is beyond us. Where Costa was fearless, Morata was toothless. Where Costa was a menace to the opposition, Morata was a menace to his own team.
Nicholas Pepe
Arsenal completed the signing of Ivory Coast winger Nicolas Pepe from Lille for a club-record fee in 2019. He was a promising winger and by then Arsenal boss Unai Emery admitted th winger was super talented as many clubs in Europe were after him.
Just before his move, Pepe had an outstanding season with Lille in 2018/19, scoring 23 goals and registering 12 assists in 41 games.
Social media became unbearable the day Arsenal unveiled Nicolas Pepe as their new record signing. It was even worse a few weeks later when he dribbled past van Dijk & fooled people into thinking he was going to be a superstar.
Things turned ugly for the Ivorian and he became a bench warmer and ended up leaving on loan.
Georginio Wijnaldum
Wijnaldum signed for Paris Saint-Germain from Liverpool on a free transfer. The midfielder spent five seasons at Anfield, winning the Premier League and Champions League.
The Dutchman left Liverpool at the end of the season after opting not to sign an extension to his contract at Anfield to play for Mauricio Pochettino.
The midfielder struggled to secure a regular role with Pochettino’s side,going on to amass just 1,933 minutes of action over 38apps,of which only 22 were starts.
This led to him scooping the award of Ligue1 flop signing of the year.
Harry Maguire
Manchester United spent almost an entire summer trying to sign Maguire in 2019,haggling with Leicester City to drop their £80m asking price. In the end,United wasted weeks & paid the full asking price anyway.
The 26-year-old England international joined Leicester in 2017 and has made 76 appearances, scoring five goals.
Maguire’s miserable form at Manchester United has seen him top the list of players who have made the most mistakes leading to opposition in the 2020/21 Premier League season to the present day.