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Attaining the status of a club legend is a daunting task. Any player who achieves this has to stay with a particular club for a significant period of time and also has to perform on a level that matches the expectations of fans. For this reason, it becomes even more difficult to be a club legend at some of the best clubs across Europe because of the immense pressure to perform at the very highest level.However despite this, many notable players have etched their names in the folklore of the European giants before moving on. Recently players like Steven Gerrard, Xavi and Bastian Schweinsteiger left their childhood clubs to move abroad to start a new chapter in their footballing careers. Like these players, many other players who were long-term servants of a club have left the club.How have they performed after their moves? Were they able to perform to the same level that made the club legends at their previous clubs?
#1 Frank Lampard
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Frank Lampard was a player who joined Chelsea before the Abramovich era began and he is undoubtedly the best player from the pre-Abramovich era who succeeded after the Russian’s takeover. Lampard spent 13 years with Chelsea and won numerous honours with the club before being released at the end of the 2013/14 season.
Upon leaving Chelsea, Lampard joined new MLS outfit New York City FC and then spent the entire 2014/15 season on loan at their sister club Manchester City. This came as a shock to many as City was Chelsea’s biggest threat in the race for the league title. It won’t be wrong to say that Lampard’s move to City was due to City’s necessity to fill the home grown quota as a majority of his appearances were off the bench.
During his one-year stay with City, Lampard played 38 games overall of which 25 were as a substitute. He featured in 32 league games for City but managed just 1000 minutes on the pitch. Despite this, he scored 6 league goals and provided one assist. Lampard’s other direct contribution to City’s scoreline came in a league cup match against Sheffield Wednesday when he scored two goals and provided an assist.
Although Lampard was not a crucial player for City, he proved to be a decent acquisition since he was only on loan. His best contribution to his side was when he came on as a sub for City against his former club and scored the equalising goal.
Rating: 5/10
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo was a fan favourite during his stay with Manchester United and he became a club legend despite only spending 6 seasons at the club.
The Portuguese ace left England to join Real Madrid and he has now completed six years in the Spanish Capital. In these six years Ronaldo has won all possible honours he could win with Real Madrid in the competitions the club featured in, but his trophy tally is still higher with United.
Ronaldo transformed into a goal scoring machine after moving to Spain and nowadays we do not see the tricky winger in action quite as often. He has scored 313 goals in 300 competitive matches for Real Madrid and is already the second highest goalscorer in the club’s history. He only needs 10 more goals to surpass the leading goal scorer Raul who took 741 games to score his 323 goals. So it is assured that Raul’s record will be broken sometime during the next season. Ronaldo is also sixth in the all-time La Liga top scorers list and by the end of this season he could rise to second place.
The 30 year old has been the driving force behind Real Madrid’s recent success and pushed his side to their historic La Decima by scoring a record 17 goals in the UEFA Champions League.
Despite his highs he has had some lows as well. In 2013, Ronaldo got sent off in the final of the Copa del Rey which effectively ended any chance his club had to make a comeback. Similarly towards the end of last season, Ronaldo missed a crucial penalty in a game against Valencia. If Ronaldo scored that goal, then Real Madrid would have been level on points with Barcelona and would have won the La Liga last season due to a better head-to-head.
Rating: 9.5/10
#3 Thierry Henry
Arsenal’s all-time leading goal scorer, an 'Invincible', one of, if not the greatest striker in the Premier League and a legend. These are some titles that can easily describe Theirry Henry, who came to England and left and everlasting impact before moving to Barcelona in 2007.
Henry’s peak years were at Arsenal and he was just days away from his thirtieth birthday when he moved to the Catalan club. He couldn’t replicate his goal scoring form with Arsenal and was often played in the wings. He even admitted his dissatisfaction with the move, but nevertheless ended his maiden season in Spain with 19 goals. His second season with Spain was significantly better than the first and he ended the season as a treble winner. However in his final season with Barcelona, he was relegated to the bench after the emergence of Pedro.
The Frenchman’s time in Spain was not as prolific as his time in England and during this time a factor called ‘age’ started to kick in. Henry left Spain to move to play in the MLS, where he spent five years, but scored only 52 goals! The tally is small for someone of Henry’s quality playing in the MLS.
Henry won several honours upon leaving Arsenal including the coveted Champions League, however on a personal level his performance graph dipped considerably after leaving the Gunners.
Rating: 7/10
#4 Robbie Fowler
Robbie Fowler is a name that should have been synonymous with the likes of Steven Gerrard or Ian Rush, but a move away from Liverpool was followed by some mediocre seasons for the Englishman.
Fowler, who was a youth product of Liverpool’s academy, played for the senior side between 1993 and 2001. During this period he scored 120 league goals for the reds and 171 goals overall. Fowler was a popular figure among the Liverpool fans, but the emergence of Michael Owen restricted his game time.
Fowler left Merseyside to play for Leeds United, but he never found the same goal scoring ability which bestowed him the title ‘God’ from the Liverpool fans. After just a season and a half with Leeds, he moved to Manchester City who were not the powerhouse they are today.
The striker struggled with injury problems while at City and it was an issue which bothered him at Leeds as well. After two and a half below par seasons with City, he returned to his familiar turf in Merseyside. However Folwer was only a backup striker during his second stint and scored just 12 goals during this two year period.
Fowler’s decline was clear at this moment and after he left Liverpool for the second time, he moved to the Championship to play for Cardiff City. Things went downhill for him from there on as he moved from club to club and from country to country, but all in vain. He eventually retired in 2011 and his last club was Muangthong United in Thailand.
Rating: 4/10
#5 Raul
Raul was one of the members of the Real Madrid squad from the early 2000s which was popularly known as the Galacticos. However unlike the superstars who were signed by Real Madrid, Raul was a product of the club’s academy. He captained the club from 2003 and held the post till he left in 2010 and he is currently the club’s all-time leading goal scorer.
In 2010, he ended an eighteen years old association with Real Madrid and signed for Schalke in Germany. The Spaniard made a significant impact at Schalke as the club won the DFB Pokal in his first season and ended the club’s long wait for a trophy. In addition to this he led his club to the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League before losing out to Manchester United. He finished his first season in Germany as the club’s leading goal scorer overall and in the league. His second season with Schalke was equally good and at the end of his two year spell in Germany he scored 40 goals in 98 games.
Raul left Germany to play in Qatar for Al Sadd where spent two years and helped his club win their first league title in five years in only his first season with the club. He retired from professional football in March 2014, but returned to play for New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League.
Towards the end of his career in Qatar it became clear that the level of his performance was dipping with age. But he was still able to give two good seasons for Schalke before leaving European football.
Rating: 7/10
#6 Kaka
Kaka was an integral player from the Milan side of the first decade of the 21st century that instilled fear into the heart of the opposition. The Brazilian was one of the best players in the world during his time with the Italian club and led them to a Champions League victory in 2007 and he also won the Ballon d’Or in the same year.
In 2009, Real Madrid started to make massive changes to their squad and Kaka was one of the high profile players who joined the club. However nobody would have foreseen that Kaka at Real Madrid would only be a shadow of his former self from AC Milan.
The Brazilian’s progress was severely hampered by injuries and during his absence other players like Mesut Ozil had cemented their place in the starting lineup. After the initial two seasons he found himself on the bench more often than on the pitch and a significant number of his appearances came off the bench.
After four injury ridden seasons with the club, Kaka left Spain to return to Milan. However despite his limited playing time at Real, he managed to score 29 goals for the club and provide 32 assists during his stay.
Kaka was injured in his first competitive match for Milan, but after his return he proved to be one of the standout performers for the club which was underperforming at that time. He managed to score 9 goals and provide 5 assists in 37 games for the club. He moved to MLS in 2014, but played for his first club Sao Paolo on loan till 2015. He has been playing for Orlando City in the 2015 MLS season and has so far scored 10 goals and provided 4 assists in 22 games for the club.
Rating: 6/10
#7 Andrea Pirlo
The Mozart of football spent a decade with AC Milan – whom he joined from Inter Milan – and it was with this Milanese club that Pirlo rose to fame. He left the club in 2011 after they decided not to renew his contract as he was already 32 at that point. But it turned out to be a blessing for Juventus who snapped Pirlo up.
Pirlo became the pivot around which Juventus engineered their game. He was an indispensable member of the Juventus side that went on to win four league titles on the trot from 2012 to 2015. After he left Milan, he was also voted as Serie A’s player of the year three times in a row from 2012 to 2014. Pirlo’s performance for the Old Lady would have been heartbreaking for the Milan fans as their side struggled to find a replacement for the veteran.
The Italian was also nominated for the UEFA Player of the Year award twice during this period and he finished fourth in 2012 and seventh in 2015. To top this he was also named in the UEFA Team of the Year in 2012.
Pirlo’s time with Juventus was incredible on a personal and team level and it would have been amazing if he could have crowned it with a UEFA Champions League title last season. Despite that shortcoming, Pirlo has been one of the best midfielders in Europe during his spell with Juventus, despite entering his mid-thirties.
Rating: 9/10
#8 Alessandro Del Piero
Del Piero was one of the very few players who stayed with Juventus after they were relegated to Serie B in 2006. His romance with Juventus lasted for 19 years and ended on a high after he lifted the Serie A in his final season with the club.
The Italian was 37 when he left Juventus and it was understandable that he left Europe to play is league which was not as demanding as the ones in Europe. Del Piero joined Sydney FC in the A-League and spent two seasons down under. During his stint there he scored 24 goals in 48 games. The Italian’s arrival in Australia made a considerable impact in footballing and marketing terms and in April 2015 he was named in Asian Football Federation’s team of the decade.
After leaving Australia, he joined Delhi Dynamos in the newly formed Indian Super League. However his lackluster performances failed to inspire his side and they failed to reach the semi-finals despite being one of the early favourites. His only goal for Delhi came in his final game with a neat free kick against Chennai.
Del Piero was well past his best years when he moved from Juventus and so there is no point scrutinizing his on field impact. However off the field he was a big attraction in Australia and India.
Rating: 5/10
#9 David Beckham
David Beckham was and still is one of the most recognisable figures in football. The former England captain was a crowd puller on and off the pitch and he rose to stardom along with his club, Manchester United, in the late 90s.
Beckham left England after 12 years with Manchester United to sign for Real Madrid who were creating their 'Galacticos'.
The Englishman struggled during his initial season with Real Madrid and got sent off in his final league game of the season. In his second season in Spain, he still couldn’t find his feet despite being in incredible form while playing for England. However, Beckham started to turn things around in his third season but his temperament was questioned as he got sent off twice in league games during the season.
Despite some improved performances, Real Madrid were willing to sell Beckham in his fourth season and a deal was agreed with LA Galaxy midway through the season. Beckham fought his way into the team despite falling out with the manager Fabio Capello and his performance even prompted Real to untie the deal with LA Galaxy.
The former Manchester United man spent the next five years of his career in the United States and enjoyed considerable success with the American club. He even had two separate loan spells with AC Milan which was quite successful. In 2010 Beckham returned to Europe for a brief spell with PSG before calling it a day.
Beckham had a successful career abroad playing for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy and AC Milan, but he was never quite the same player who left Old Trafford.
Rating: 6/10
#10 Ronaldinho
In 2008, when Pep Guardiola took over as Barcelona manager he took a bold decision to sell Ronaldinho who was a crucial member of the side prior Guardiola’s arrival. The Ballon d’Or winner left Catalan club to join Italian side AC Milan and spent three seasons with the club.
The Brazilian had a good start to his first season, but later on he struggled for fitness and was often played off the bench. In his second season things started off on a poor note, but after a while he rediscovered his touch and became one of Milan’s best players. But, despite some good performances his decline was becoming evident.
In January 2011, he returned to Brazil with Flamengo, but things didn’t go well with the club after he sued the club for lack of payments and had his contract cancelled. He immediately moved to Atletico Mineiro and enjoyed a decent spell with the club. However he struggled with injuries later on and his contract with the club was cancelled with mutual agreement in July 2014.
The world cup winner’s next move was to Mexico, but his stay in the country lasted for only a year and he returned to Brazil with Fluminese.
Ronaldinho’s decline was gradual and evident after leaving Barcelona and Guardiola proved that he was right to leave the Brazilian out of his plans.
Rating: 6/10
