5 biggest transfer mistakes by Real Madrid
The lure of playing for a club of Real Madrid's stature makes it easy for them to sign the biggest stars available on the block. The Spanish giants' history is replete with some of the greatest ever talents representing the fabled Blancos jersey.
However, not all of them have gone on to achieve glory at Real Madrid. There have also been a few who weren't given a chance to shine and ended up flourishing elsewhere.
Real Madrid's five biggest transfer mistakes:
Real Madrid have made plenty of transfer mistakes. Florentino Perez's Galactico project has resulted in several expensive flops and some talented young players completely ignored.
On that note, let's have a look at the five biggest transfer mistakes of Real Madrid:
#5 Selling Claude Makelele
Amongst the slew of transfer mistakes in the first Florentino Perez-era at Real Madrid, the greatest one remains the selling of Claude Makele.
The Frenchman was the backbone of Real Madrid's side in the early noughties, helping them win seven titles in three years. His position of the defensive midfield role also became colloquially known as 'the Makelele role.'
Yet, with more glamorous players in the squad taking plaudits, his performances went underrated, and Makele was allowed to leave for Chelsea in 2003 after a dispute with the Real Madrid president.
While Perez felt Makelele wouldn't be missed, that certainly wasn't the case. Los Blancos struggled in his absence and eventually went three seasons without a league title.
#4 Failing to spend Ronaldo's transfer money wisely
Cristiano Ronaldo was sold by Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018 for around €100 million. They sure used it to revamp the squad with some new signings, but most of them ended up being expensive flops.
Mariano (€22 million), Alvaro Odriozola (€30 million), Thibaut Courtois (€35 million), Vinicius Junior (€45 million), Andriy Lunin (€8.5 million) and Brahim Diaz (€17 million) were the players signed by Real Madrid that season.
Of these, only the Belgian shot-stopper, following a terrible first season, has become a first-team regular and shown his calibre.
Even though Mariano and Vinicius Junior are still at Real Madrid, they haven't done enough to prove their worth to the team, while the rest of the aforementioned players are out on loan.