In recent years, we’ve seen teams like Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Inter Milan spend horrendous amounts of money on players that turned out to be pretty poor.
When you look back at a number of those ill-fated transfers, a majority of them just happen to come from Porto.
Of all the teams in the Iberian nation, the Portuguese giants really know how to get their money’s worth for their players regardless of how good, or bad, they are.
Hugo Almeida, Jorge Andrade, Carlos Alberto and Giourkas Seitaridis were all purchased by other clubs for quite staggering amounts but the fees that were paid for this lot, and the performances that followed, really take the biscuit.
Jackson Martinez
Position: Striker
Nationality: Colombian
Current club: Portimonense (loan from Guangzhou Evergrande)
Fee sold for: £25m to Atletico Madrid
Martinez enjoyed a very good spell at Porto, scoring 92 goals in 132 games for the club. Throughout his three seasons, he was linked with numerous moves away but Atletico Madrid eventually landed him for £25 million.
He lasted less than a season in Spain and played just seven times for the Rojiblancos. He’s now at Guangzhou Evergrande, who paid £31m for him. Blimey!
Only 10 starts there and he’s out on loan to Portuguese side Portimonense where his impact has been more in-line with his earlier successful days at Porto.
Danilo
Position: Right-back
Nationality: Brazilian
Current club: Manchester City
Fee sold for: £23m to Real Madrid
Brazilian full-backs are always hit and miss. You could land a Cafu or you could end up with this man, Danilo, who has been a bit of a flop at Real Madrid.
The 25-year-old played over 13o matches for Porto but didn’t reach quite that at the Bernabéu. If you need evidence of his decline, take a look at his infamous performance against Wolfsburg in the Champions League in 2016.
Another fairly handsome figure teased him away from the Spanish giants to Manchester City where he has been used intermittently by Pep Guardiola since he joined in 2017.
Eliaquim Mangala
Position: Centre-back
Nationality: French
Current club: Manchester City
Fee sold for: £32m to Man City
£32m! That’s how much City paid for Mangala. Just let that sink in for a while…
The 26-year-old France international hasn’t looked anywhere near good enough for the money that the Citizens paid for him and is pretty much a walking disaster when played alongside Nicolas Otamendi.
He’s looked okay when Vincent Kompany had been on the pitch but didn’t when Pep Guardiola arrived at the Etihad he was quickly shipped out to Valencia on loan before another even briefer spell at Everton.
Anderson
Position: Central midfield
Nationality: Brazilian
Current club: Adana Demirspor
Fee sold for: £23.63m to Man Utd
In July 2007, Manchester United signed Anderson and Nani from Porto and Sporting Lisbon respectively. Neither did brilliantly, but it’s safe to say that the former was a complete disappointment, while Nani did have a couple of very good seasons.
Anderson arrived to much fanfare but he never showed any sign of form during his eight seasons at the club where he played 181 games. That’s an amazing achievement for an otherwise underachieving player. His latest move is to Turkish second-tier side Adana Demirspor.
Aly Cissokho
Position: Left-back
Nationality: French
Current club: Antalyaspor
Fee sold for: £12.15m to Lyon
Have you seen Cissokho play for Aston Villa? The man looks like he’s never seen a football before and he is easily one of the worst players in a, quite frankly, average squad.
Once upon a time, he was seen as a promising full-back and a transfer saga erupted in 2009 when he was at Porto with AC Milan and Lyon chasing his signature. The French side would eventually win the war by paying £12m before his career became a nomadic voyage around Europe from loan spells at Olympiacos to his most recent club, Antalyaspor, in Turkey.
Jose Bosingwa
Position: Right-back
Nationality: Portuguese
Current club: Trabzonspor
Fee sold for: £16.2m to Chelsea
Bosingwa is probably best known at Chelsea for his overly exuberant celebrations at the end of the Blues’ 2012 Champions League final victory. You would have thought that he won the entire match on his own.
That was probably the only thing he did of note during his four seasons at Stamford Bridge. £16.2m well spent then…
Bosingwa finally hung up his boots at Trabzonspor in 2016.
Ricardo Quaresma
Position: Winger
Nationality: Portuguese
Current club: Besiktas
Fee sold for: £18.45m to Inter Milan
Quaresma was a bit of superstar during his time at Porto, playing over 150 games and winning three Primeira Liga titles.
Inter were probably justified in paying £18m for the exciting winger but he just didn’t live up to the hype at the San Siro, despite a few moments of brilliance.
He was even loaned out to Chelsea during his first term in Italy but now finds himself in a second spell with Besiktas after rebuilding some of his stock at Euro 2016 with eventual winners Portugal.
A fan-favourite there, he is one of the many former Porto men on this list now making his way in Turkey.
Helder Postiga
Position: Striker
Nationality: Portuguese
Current club: Atletico Kolkata
Fee sold for: £6.25m to Tottenham Hotspur
Just over £6m doesn’t sound like a huge amount of money to pay for a footballer in this day and age but it was 2003 when Spurs snapped up Postiga for that fee.
The striker was a complete and utter failure in his only season at White Hart Lane, scoring just two goals in 24 matches. 12 months later, they sold him back to Porto with Pedro Mendes going the other way. What a waste.
The post From Danilo to Martinez: Eight players who flopped after a big-money move from Porto appeared first on Squawka News.
From Squawka News http://bit.ly/2DzgiJV
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