Top 5 big money flops in Juventus history
When it comes to listing the most successful football clubs in history, Juventus’s name is sure to feature amongst the very top.
Founded in 1897, the Italian outfit has been an absolute juggernaut in its 123-year history, winning an unprecedented 36 league titles, 13 Coppa Italias, 9 Italian Supercups (the latter two being a record), 2 Champions League titles and 2 Europa League titles, among scores of other accolades.
However, there have been some downs too – most notably the Calciopoli scandal – which saw the club implicated for match fixing, leading to the loss of their 2005 title, a relegation to Serie B and the departure of several key players.
However, Juventus picked up the pieces admirably and were soon back in the first division of Italian football after being declared Serie B champions in 2007.
The past decade is undoubtedly one of Juventus's most successful and has seen 9 successive Serie A titles come their way.
Great success undoubtedly attracts some of the greatest players, with Michel Platini, Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon, Edgar Davids, Zinedine Zidane, Andrea Pirlo and more recently Cristiano Ronaldo all having pulled on the famous black and white stripes at some point in their legendary careers.
However, success in the beautiful game is an unpredictable thing, and it’s safe to say that there have been some players who weren't exactly worth their weight in gold for the Old Lady.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top 5 big money flops in Juventus history.
#5 Jorge Andrade
You can’t have a list of top 5 big money flops in Juventus history without Jorge Andrade’s name featuring on it.
Juventus’ backline, often heralded as the pinnacle of Italian defensive excellence, looked extremely fragile when Andrade was a part of its line-up.
Signed from Spanish outfit Deportivo for a fee of around €10 million in 2007, Andrade – who had quite an alarming injury history - suffered a horrific left kneecap injury during a match against Roma, leading him to miss the entire 2007-08 season.
The Portuguese’s hellish start to life in Italy stretched on to 2008, when he suffered another serious left kneecap injury during pre-season and once again spent the entire season on the sidelines.
Despite his woes, which saw him spend more time on the operating table than on the pitch, Andrade still tried to make his time with the Old Lady work.
But in 2009 Juventus finally decided to cut their losses on the defender and terminated his contract in April of that year.
Andrade left Juventus after making just four league appearances for the Turin outfit, which would turn out to be the last club he played for after an unsuccessful trial with Spanish side Malaga and a proposed trial with Toronto FC which never materialized.
#4 Jorge Martinez
The Uruguayan joined Juventus in 2010 for a fee of around €12 million after a fantastic three year-stint with Serie A counterpart Catania.
He netted 22 goals across 86 appearances, including a career-best nine goals in 25 games in his final season for Catania. But he never did replicate that prolific form for the Old Lady.
Martinez suffered the misfortune of picking up an injury in his very first game, a 1-0 loss to A.S Bari. But he put in an outstanding performance on his return to the starting line-up in a 2-1 win against AC Milan.
He suffered an injury in the 56th minute of the same match, which kept him out for nearly four months.
On his return to the team, now managed by Antonio Conte, the midfielder was told that he wasn’t a part of the new manager’s plans.
He underwent unsuccessful, injury-ravaged loan spells with Cesena, CFR Club and Novara whom he joined permanently in 2016 after making just 14 overall appearances in six years for the Old Lady.