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When it comes to football, the old adage that age is just a number simply isn’t true. While modern standards of physiotherapy, nutrition and fitness allow players to last at the top level for longer than ever today, once a player hits the age of 30 – young in practically any other walk of life – it’s still seen by most that they’re on their way down.
Take Cristiano Ronaldo for instance – he’s still the best player on the planet but every man and his dog is predicting his downfall to come sooner rather than later now he’s past the big 30. And so it makes sense that clubs – looking to make an investment, after all – would look to buy younger rather than older players.
Sometimes, however, even older players can fetch fortunes on the inflated transfer market. These are the ten most expensive players over the age of 30 in football history.
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#10 Graziano Pelle - £13m, Southampton to Shandong Luneng, 2016
Italian striker Pelle wasn’t exactly a goal machine at Southampton – 30 goals over the course of two seasons isn’t bad of course, but not exactly up to Harry Kane standards – but to be fair, the £13m that Chinese side Shandong Luneng paid for him in the summer of 2016, after a pretty strong Euro 2016 showing, now sounds like a paltry sum in comparison to some of the crazy fees being thrown around today.
The only crazy thing about Pelle’s move, of course? His insane wage packet. While people have lambasted the likes of Hulk for taking what seems to be easy money by moving to the Chinese Super League, perhaps you can’t blame Pelle for making the move at the age of 31 when a lot of players his age would be sliding into irrelevancy.
Pelle’s reportedly making approximately £260,000 a week – more than most Premier League players and more than the highest paid player currently in Pelle’s native Serie A.
Refreshingly, Pelle even admitted he made the move purely for the money. And given his poor goalscoring record since the move – eight goals in thirty games – it seems like he’s the one who’s come up trumps in the bigger picture.
#9 Medhi Benatia - £14.8m, Bayern Munich to Juventus, 2017
Moroccan centre-back Benatia was signed by Bayern Munich back in the summer of 2014 but didn’t really feature that much for them during his time there, so a move to Juventus – initially on loan in the summer of 2016, and then permanently – made a lot of sense given Juve’s penchant for using older players. Benatia was 30 when he moved to Turin, a relative youngster when compared to the likes of Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini.
Unfortunately for Benatia, he was only able to make a paltry 21 appearances for Juventus last season despite the relatively big transfer fee, and was an unused substitute when the Old Lady lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League final at the end of last season. More appearances than he made at Bayern, but still not great.
Chances for him this season may remain slim given the development of youngster Daniele Rugani and the arrival of German international Benedikt Howedes, but evidently, Juve manager Max Allegri felt strongly enough for the Moroccan to pay a large fee. He may have a role to play yet.
#8 Angelo Peruzzi - £15.7m, Inter Milan to Lazio, 2000
To put it simply, Italy had what you’d call an embarrassment of riches when it came to goalkeepers in the '90s. Gianluca Pagliuca, Luca Marchegiani and Francesco Toldo were three of them but prior to the emergence of the now-legendary Gianluigi Buffon, it was Angelo Peruzzi who stood head and shoulders above the rest.
While Peruzzi was eventually ousted by Buffon as the Italian national side’s #1 goalkeeper, he does have one thing he can hold over the keeper recognised as arguably the most legendary of them all. Firstly, while both men won every possible trophy in the Italian game and both won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, (Buffon obviously as the first choice goalie) Peruzzi won the one trophy that has eluded Buffon - the Champions League with Juventus in 1996.
While Buffon remains the most expensive goalkeeper of all time, he made his move to Juve in his 20s, Peruzzi’s most expensive move came at the age of 30 in 2000 to big-spending Lazio, and it was there that he ended his career some seven years later, after appearing alongside the likes of Hernan Crespo, Marcelo Salas, Juan Veron and Pavel Nedved.
#7 Zlatan Ibrahimovic - £15.7m, AC Milan to Paris St. Germain, 2012
It was the move that made Ibrahimovic the most expensive player of all time up to that point in terms of combined transfer fees and it was the move that signalled that PSG were now big time players in the world of European football thanks to an injection of Qatari money. Only the biggest clubs in Europe – the likes of Juventus, Barcelona and the two Milan clubs – could call upon the services of the mighty Zlatan, and PSG were now amongst them.
Although he was 30 when he made his move, Ibrahimovic was a huge hit in Paris, becoming the club’s record goalscorer in just four seasons. He won an average of three trophies per season during his time at the club and finished 4th in the Ballon d’Or competition in 2013. And despite being unable to lead PSG to the Champions League – the club’s holy grail – 2015/16 saw him score 50 goals in 51 games, a truly astonishing total.
The crazy part is that he’d probably have made this list again, only a little higher up, if Manchester United had been forced to pay a transfer fee for his services in the summer of 2016. As it was Zlatan left Paris on a free transfer following the end of his contract, but a haul of 28 goals in his first season in England proved that even in his mid 30’s, Zlatan is still a great.
#6 Jeremy Mathieu - £15.8m, Valencia to Barcelona, 2014
French defender Mathieu was an odd signing for Barcelona from the off given he was already 30 at the time of his move from Valencia in 2014, and of course, you’d have thought Barca could go out and sign practically any player they wished – so paying almost £16m for a 30-year old with just four international caps to his name was never really going to be popular with the fans.
Although Mathieu played plenty of games for Barcelona during his run there and won La Liga with them in 2014/15 and 2015/16, it was always clear he wasn’t quite up to scratch when compared to some of his more illustrious teammates and after a diabolical performance against Juventus in the Champions League quarter-finals, he was substituted at half-time and didn’t appear since.
This summer saw him move to Portugal with Sporting Lisbon and unsurprisingly, they didn’t have to pay anywhere near the fee that Barcelona did for the Frenchman. As a matter of fact they didn’t pay a penny – they picked Mathieu up on a free transfer after he was allowed to leave the Nou Camp as a free agent after the 2016/17 season ended.
#5 Claude Makelele - £16m, Real Madrid to Chelsea, 2003
Arguably the most important signing on this list, Makelele’s move from Real Madrid to Chelsea in 2003 signalled a massive change for both clubs; at Madrid he’d been used as the holding midfielder to sit alongside Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Raul – players hardly renowned for tracking back – and once he left and was replaced largely by David Beckham, the Galactico era had begun – and suddenly Real were somehow less successful.
At Chelsea meanwhile, despite being 30 when he made his move, he changed the fortunes of the side within a season – 2004/05 saw them win the Premier League for the first time under manager Jose Mourinho, who used Makelele in the same midfield lynchpin role he’d seen so much success at Madrid in – shielding great attackers like Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Arjen Robben.
Makelele won the Premier League again in 2005/06 and once he left Chelsea in 2008, he’d essentially revolutionised the idea of the defensive midfielder in the Premier League, laying the blueprints for the future success of the likes of N’Golo Kante, Eric Dier and Nemanja Matic. Not bad for a 30-year-old!
#4 Claudio Bravo - £16m, Barcelona to Manchester City, 2016
One of the most controversial aspects of Pep Guardiola’s 2016 takeover of Manchester City was his treatment of longtime goalkeeper Joe Hart. Sure, Hart had looked shaky between England’s sticks in Euro 2016, but he’d been solid for years for City and was liked by the fans. If Pep had dispensed of him due to his form it would’ve been one thing, but instead, Guardiola removed him for the crime of not being good enough with his feet.
Obsessed with “playing the ball out from the back”, Guardiola then spent £16m on Chilean goalkeeper Bravo – 33, a young age for a keeper but old enough to make this list – basically because there was no way he’d ever have gotten Manuel Neuer. And for as good as Bravo was with his feet, unfortunately, he seemed just as terrible with his hands. Which is kind of important if you’re a goalkeeper.
After a series of gaffe-filled games Bravo was replaced at times by Willy Caballero, and this summer he’s been replaced by another expensive new keeper in Ederson, who cost almost double Bravo’s fee and seems, well, a little better at least.
#3 Samuel Eto’o - £22m, Inter Milan to Anzhi Makhachkala, 2011
Where today’s big money in a lower level league comes mostly from China, rewind a few years and the big money was all coming from oil-rich Anzhi Makhachkala, a Russian side based in the Republic of Dagestan. Purchased by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov in January 2011, the club immediately went on a spending spree that culminated in the purchase of the then 30-year-old Samuel Eto’o, signed for £22m from Inter after a season that saw him score 37 goals.
If the move sounded like a strange one at the time, then it made all the sense in the world when it was revealed that Eto’o was being paid a world-record salary of around £350k a week. Eto’o’s good form largely continued in Russia too despite a lot of issues, including having to live and train in Moscow and then fly into Dagestan for home games due to the political issues in the Republic. Eto’o scored 13 goals in 23 appearances for the club in his first season, and then hit 21 in 44 in the following one.
Unfortunately for Anzhi – and their highly paid players – though, Kerimov decided to pull the plug on the huge budget in the summer of 2013 due to a lack of success despite spending so much money. This meant the big names – including Eto’o – became available on the transfer market and a move to Chelsea for an undisclosed fee followed, where he was labelled an “old man” by Jose Mourinho despite playing generally well.
#2 Gabriel Batistuta - £23.5m, Fiorentina to Roma, 2000
Sometimes football does give you the fairytale ending. Recognised as one of the game’s all-time great strikers, Gabriel Batistuta had been plundering goals in Italy’s Serie A for Fiorentina for nine seasons, averaging an astonishing 23 goals a season, but despite his tremendous form in one of the most entertaining teams of the '90s, he couldn’t lead Fiorentina to the Scudetto. So in 2000, when Roma paid £23.5m for him at the age of 31, Fiorentina’s fans let him leave as a hero.
The move worked out in spades as Batistuta hit 21 goals in 31 games for his new club and led them to the league title in his first attempt. It would be the last piece of glory in his career, as his goalscoring exploits then tailed off dramatically, only scoring 6 goals in 2001/02 despite playing 32 times. The 2002 World Cup was also unsuccessful for him as Argentina were eliminated in the group stages and Batistuta only scored one goal.
Despite the rather rough ending to his career, Batistuta remains an icon and so it’s no surprise that he’s still the most expensive 31-year old in football history. The closest comparison would be Robin van Persie, who moved to Manchester United at 29 and immediately led them to the Premier League title, but he was seen as a traitor by Arsenal fans. The fact that Fiorentina’s fans still worshipped Batigol showed his true impact.
#1 Diego Milito - £24.7m, Genoa to Inter Milan, 2009
Jose Mourinho, amongst other things, is renowned for having his favourite players – ones he values above others despite other people in the game not really seeing the same attraction. Nemanja Matic, Pepe and Marouane Fellaini come to mind, but one of those men was certainly Argentine striker Diego Milito. Sure, Milito had finished second in the goalscoring charts in 2008/09 to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who departed Inter that summer, but Mourinho signing him for almost £25m still raised some eyebrows.
Inter fans need not have worried. Far from missing Ibrahimovic, Milito replaced him and then some – he scored 30 goals in 52 appearances in 2009/10, including creating two and scoring one in his first Milan derby and scoring six goals in the Champions League – most notably against Barcelona in the semi-finals and then twice against Bayern Munich in the final as Inter won the trophy in a major upset.
By the end of the season, Inter had won a treble; the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia and the Champions League thanks in part to Milito’s goalscoring. Milito was also named as the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year and Serie A’s Footballer of the Year and Foreign Footballer of the Year. Not bad for someone who was past the big 3-0 mark!
