2) Valencia – €432m
La Liga champions just over a decade ago, the fall of Valencia has been one of the saddest football stories from Spain. Los Che’s academy (aka cantera) has been a conveyor belt for talents over the years and they were seen as the only club who could challenge the big two of Real Madrid and Barcelona before the rise of Atletico Madrid.
But as with many promising clubs, financial mismanagement proved to be their undoing. Financing a new stadium proved to be an albatross around their neck and soon they were taking loans just to pay the players.
Eventually, the top talents were sold one by one to the highest bidder to ensure the club’s continuity. Spain internationals such as David Villa and David Silva were the first to be sold followed by the departures of Juan Mata, Jordi Alba, Aritz Aduriz, Roberto Soldado, Nicolas Otamendi, Jeremy Mathieu and Juan Bernat.
The summer of 2016 saw them sell Shkodran Mustafi, Andre Gomes and Paco Alcacer for a combined fee of €105m!