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.
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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.
#9 Filippo Inzaghi – € 37m
Filippo ‘Fippo’ Inzaghi brought €37 million into Juventus’ coffers in the beginning of the 2001/02 season. This transfer will be a major throwback to the time when A.C. Milan bossed Juventus in the transfer windows, and not the other way around as it is now.
Inzaghi enjoyed a stellar career at A.C. Milan and retired in 2012 as a club legend. Inzaghi won the Champions League twice, 3 Italian Championships, 1 Italian Cup, 1 Fifa Club World Cup, 2 UEFA Super Cups, and 3 Italian Super Cups during A.C. Milan’s period of complete dominance.
His international career was capped off by victory in the 2006 World Cup.
Inzaghi was fortunate to have played with a number of world-class players at A.C. Milan during his stay there. The likes of Paolo Maldini, Clarence Seedorf, Alessandro Nesta and Andrea Pirlo would surely have made life much easier for Inzaghi.
In 300 games in Serie A, Inzaghi scored 126 times, and given how difficult it is for strikers in the league, it is a decent enough return. He was much more prolific in the Champions League, scoring 29 times in 55 games for Milan in the competition.
#8 Gonzalo Higuain – € 38m
The subject of intense transfer speculation presently, Gonzalo Higuain completed a big money move only three seasons ago. The Argentine moved from Real Madrid to Napoli with Napoli forking out a club record 38 million Euros for his services. Higuain has repaid their faith by scoring bucket-loads of goals.
His exploits led him to break a 66-year-old record as top scorer in Serie A, when he scored 36 goals in the competition, last season. His performances in front of goal, in a league notoriously difficult for strikers, have led to an intense bidding war between Juventus and Arsenal, for his services.
If there is one chink in 28-year-old Higuain’s armour, it is his inability to reproduce his club form on the international stage. Vilified by Argentina fans for his glaring misses in both the 2014 World Cup final as well as the 2015 Copa America final, Higuain would be itching to set that record straight when he dons the Argentina jersey in the future.
#7 Pavel Nedved – € 41.2m
Probably the greatest player to have emerged from the Czech Republic till date, Nedved was the reason Juventus paid Lazio €41.2 million in the summer of 2001/02. Nedved won a host of individual honours during his time at Juventus, including the UEFA Best Player in Europe in 2003, and the Ballon D’Or in the same year. These awards cemented his place amongst the world’s best
Nedved was the catalysing force behind Juventus’ string of Serie A titles in 2001/02, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2005/06, despite A.C. Milan having an arguably better squad at their disposal. He also won the Serie A with Lazio in the 1999/2000 season. Nedved came close but did not quite succeed in getting his hands on the Champions League, as Juventus finished runners-up in 2002/03.
International success similarly eluded him, as the Czech Republic lost the Euro 1996 final agonisingly to Germany. Nedved was a dedicated servant for Juventus, and fans of the Turin outfit still remember the creative maestro with a tinge of pride and fondness.
#6 Lilian Thuram – € 41.5
The transfer of Pavel Nedved should have been enough to convince other teams in the league that Juventus meant business at the start of the 2001/02 season. However, Juve were not done with their transfer dealings, and they recruited French World Cup winner Lilian Thuram for a gigantic sum of €41.5 million from Parma.
The Frenchman who was a rock in the heart of the French defence for over a decade, brought his defensive solidity to the heart of the Juventus defence.
Thuram capped 140 times by France, showed why he was the subject of the highest transfer fees paid for a defender then. During his short stint at Juventus, Thuram won the Serie A in 2001/02 and 2002/03. One of the few players who can be argued to have achieved more at international level than at club level, Thuram was a throwback to the 1970’s.
He won the World Cup in 1998, the European Championship in 2000 and was runner-up in the 2006 World Cup. He won the French Footballer of the year in 1997, a rarity for a defender, given the wealth of attacking talent France had at their disposal during that period.
#5 Rui Costa – € 42m
Rui Costa was an integral part of Portugal’s golden generation that came agonisingly close to winning Euro 2004, only to lose in the final to rank outsiders Greece. Spoken of in the same breath as Luis Figo and Eusebio, Portuguese fans revered Rui Costa to almost the same extent, and it was indeed a pity that he along with Figo could not guide Portugal to international glory, despite success at junior level.
Rui Costa was on the top of his game at the turn of the century, and his outstanding playmaking abilities prompted A.C. Milan to part with €42 million at the start of the 2001/02 season, to facilitate his transfer from Fiorentina.
With the Serie A fast transforming into a 2 horse race between Juventus and A.C. Milan, Juve’s capture of Pavel Nedved meant Milan had to up the stakes and they did so by bringing in Rui Costa. Despite Nedved emerging the better player between the two, Rui Costa had more reasons to feel satisfied as he won the Champions League in the 2002/03 season with A.C. Milan.
#4 Christian Vieri – € 45m
Christian Vieri was the first true footballing nomad the world of football witnessed. Plying his trade with Atalanta, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Lazio between 1996 and 1999, Christian Vieri was the subject of a world record transfer from Lazio to Inter Milan.
The Italian forward cost Inter €45 million at the start of the 1999/2000 season and in 187 games for Inter, Vieri scored 120 goals.
Vieri forged his reputation as one of Europe’s top marksmen during a stellar season with Atletico Madrid where he scored 34 goals in 38 games. The jury is still out on whether this was a true reflection of Vieri’s abilities, especially since he notably underperformed for Italy, having been capped only 51 times and scored 23 goals for the Azzurri since his debut in 1997.
The 1999 Italian player of the year was the top scorer in Serie A in 2002/03 and in La Liga in 1997/98. Despite the huge transfer fee, Vieri failed to inspire Inter to any success of note.
#3 Gaizka Mendieta – € 48m
The transfers of Christian Vieri and Pavel Nedved for huge sums of money within a relatively short span of time, meant Lazio had their coffers full. They chose to empty a substantial portion of the same on Spanish midfielder Gaizka Mendieta, at the start of the 2001/02 season, the same season when they sold Pavel Nedved to rivals Juventus.
The box-to-box midfielder from Spain had been making waves in La Liga with Valencia and his performances in Spain convinced Lazio to part with €48 million for the services of the then 28-year-old.
The transfer, however, was an epic failure for both club and player, as Mendieta failed to settle into life in Italy. His calm and composed playing style was not suited to the bruising rigours of the Italian game, and he was a complete misfit.
Mendieta’s career started taking a sharp nosedive since his move to Lazio. A loan move to Barcelona after just one season in Italy offered him a lifeline, but his performances back in La Liga could not convince Barca to sign him on a permanent basis. His career ended with Middlesbrough in England.
#2 Gianluigi Buffon – € 52.88m
Gianluigi ‘Gigi’ Buffon has been a long time servant of Juventus. The Italian captain who has been capped a record 161 times by the Azzurri has been with the Old Lady through thick and thin. It is easy to forget that Buffon did not start out with Juventus.
Having played for Parma since 1994, Buffon became the most expensive goalkeeper in the world when Juventus spent €52.88 million to lure him away from Parma at the beginning of the 2001/02 season.
Buffon has been a dedicated servant of Juventus, having even endured relegation to Serie B and subsequent promotion, as Juventus were penalised for a match-fixing scandal.
Revered by many, he holds almost a god-like status amongst the Juve faithful. Despite a number of opportunities to move to other clubs, especially when Juve were relegated, Buffon chose to stick with Juventus, showing a degree of loyalty very rare in modern day football.
Buffon won the World Cup in 2006, which will no doubt be the highest point in his career. With Juventus becoming the dominant force in Serie A for the past 3 seasons or so, Buffon has been able to get his hands on silverware on a very regular basis.
#1 Hernan Crespo – € 55m
Closing out our list at number one is Argentina’s ace poacher Hernan Crespo. Parma were left with a cash surplus after they sold Hernan Crespo to Lazio for €55 million at the start of the 2000/01 season.
Judging by this list, it is indeed difficult to imagine how Parma have fallen from grace in recent times, given the massive amounts of money they received as transfer fees in the infant stages of the new millennium.
Crespo went on to become an instant hit at Lazio, where he scored 45 goals in 71 games. However his stay at Lazio was short-lived as lethal poachers in Italy are a rare breed, and he was soon snapped up by Inter Milan in 2002.
Parma had acquired Crespo’s services for a paltry 4 million Euros, from River Plate, in 1996. He played the maximum number of matches (187) and scored the maximum number of goals (88) at Parma, during his career. The 3 time Serie A winner is now regaling Indian audiences in the newly launched Premier Futsal league, where he turns out for the Kolkata franchise.
