10 most expensive signings in Serie A
The Serie A has been one of Europe’s hottest transfer markets since the start of the new millennium. A lot of big money moves have involved the Serie A in recent times. Many of Europe’s elite have looked towards Italy, in the hope of bolstering their squad.
Some of the most formidable teams in Europe have been forged using players lured from Italy. One only needs to look at some of the names in that illustrious list, including Zinedine Zidane and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, to know the wealth of talent that the Serie A had in abundance.
So how did the clubs in Serie A spend the massive transfer fees they recouped from the sale of such big name players? Parma, now on the verge of obscurity, sold a number of their top players, including the likes of Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon, at the turn of the century. However, abject transfer dealings and financial mismanagement led to their downfall.
Other clubs have invested well and wisely, however. The likes of Juventus, A.C. Milan and Inter Milan have been forces to reckon with on the European stage in the past decade and more. Let’s take a look at the top ten most expensive signings in Serie A:
#10 Gabriel Batistuta – €32.5m
Gabriel Batistuta or ‘Batigol’ as he is fondly remembered by fans of Argentina, completed a move from Fiorentina to AS Roma in the summer of the 2000/01 season for a transfer fee of €32.5 million, which comes in at number 10 in our list.
Batistuta was brought in to form a deadly partnership up front with a young Francesco Totti and give Roma fans some memories to cherish for a lifetime. Batistuta had a prolific record on the international stage, scoring 54 goals in 77 appearances.
Although Batistuta largely failed to live up to his price tag and reputation as one of the world’s deadliest marksmen, he did show some semblances of brilliance in his first season. He scored 33 goals in total for AS Roma, but five of his most memorable strikes came in the 2000/01 season where he helped Roma clinch their third Scudetto title.
Batistuta’s stint at Roma was cut short by injury and a loan move to Inter was followed by a free transfer to Al Arabi.