Real Madrid and Barcelona have poached the Prem’s best like Ronaldo, Suarez and Hazard – but are they getting value for money?
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ENGLAND might have the best league in the world but when it comes to signing the very best players we still have to defer to Spain’s big two.
Eden Hazard’s £150million move to Real Madrid is confirmation of the fact that the Premier League still remains a stepping stone to global superstardom.
The five most expensive players to leave England have all been sold to Barcelona or Real over the past ten years.
But does La Liga actually get the best of those exorbitant imports or are they being taken for a ride by canny English clubs cashing in on their stars for peak profit?
Sun Sport investigates.
CRISTIANO RONALDO
Sporting Lisbon to Man Utd, £12.25m. Man.Utd to Real Madrid £80m.
United fans thought Alex Ferguson had lost his marbles when he paid what was then a record fee for a teenager to bring Ronaldo to Old Trafford in 2003.
But they quickly changed their tune when they saw the gawky teenager bamboozle opposing defenders with his outrageous skills and dazzling showmanship.
The Portuguese youngster swept all before him during his six seasons at United, winning eight major trophies including three successive Premier League titles and the 2008 Champions League.
But when he won the World Player of the Year award shortly after United’s penalty shoout-out defeat of Chelsea in Moscow, it became apparent that he had achieved all that he could in English football.
Fergie managed to keep him for one more year at Old Trafford before reluctantly selling his star player for what was then a world record transfer fee.
And it was at the Bernabeu that Ronaldo found the perfect stage to perform at a level arguably never seen from a footballer before.
Four more Champions League winners’ medals, another four Ballon d’Ors and an astonishing 450 goals in Madrid’s famous all-white make him a strong contender for the title of the greatest player of all time.
And after all that, the Spanish giants even managed to sell him for a profit when they reluctantly allowed him to join Juventus for £105m last year.
Winners: Spain
GARETH BALE
Southampton to Spurs £7m. Spurs to Real Madrid £89m
ZINEDINE ZIDANE might not want to keep Bale at the Bernabeu but the stubborn Welshman is not going to be forced out of Madrid by anyone.
It was six years ago that Bale became the most expensive player in the world when Real signed him from Spurs, although they did their best to keep that fact a secret at the time.
Such was the club’s fear of putting Ronaldo’s nose out of joint that they could not allow anyone to overshadow their Portuguese prince.
And in spite of all his dazzling displays over the past six seasons, Bale has been forced to spend most of that time playing second fiddle to the high maintenance Ronaldo.
Because he never learned to speak Spanish and has always tried to maintain a low profile away from the pitch, Bale has struggled to win over some Madridistas who expect a bit of swagger from their star players.
But that has never been Bale’s way, even when he was first catching the world’s attention with his stunning Champions League hat-trick for Spurs against Inter Milan in the San Siro.
Signed from Southampton as a left-back, it took Bale so long to make an impact at White Hart Lane that Harry Redknapp seriously contemplated selling him to Birmingham before he reinvented himself as an unstoppable attacking force.
Yet once he found his feet he took his game to a new level with Madrid, scoring in the 2014 and 2018 Champions League finals and forming part of the club’s legendary BBC strike force with Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
Winners: Spain
LUIS SUAREZ
Ajax to Liverpool £22.8m. Liverpool to Barcelona £65m
RACIST cheat or one of the finest finishers in the modern game?
That all depends on whether Luis Suarez is playing for your team or the opposition.
The controversial Uruguayan could do no wrong in the eyes of the Liverpool fans during his four seasons on Merseyside, even when he was banned for racially abusing Patrice Evra and for biting Branislav Ivanovic.
But when he returned to Anfield with Barcelona this season he was abused from first whistle to last by the same supporters who used to turn a blind eye to his appalling behaviour.
Yet Suarez’s first 18 months in English football were fairly unremarkable. It was only in his final two seasons that he really emerged as football’s pantomime villain.
He fired Liverpool to within a Steven Gerrard slip of their first Premier League title a year after demanding to be sold and then made it clear that he’d had enough of England.
The £65million fee more than compensated for Liverpool’s loss, although most of that windfall was wasted on the likes of Mario Balotelli, Lazar Markovic, Alberto Moreno and Emre Can.
His Barcelona debut was delayed by a four-month worldwide ban for a World Cup bite on Giorgio Chiellini and Liverpool breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Suarez was no longer their problem.
Yet against all expectations, Suarez has been on his best behaviour with the Catalan giants and has taken his game to a new level alongside Lionel Messi at the Nou Camp.
Winners: Spain
PHILIPPE COUTINHO
Inter Milan to Liverpool £8.5m. Liverpool to Barcelona £105m
BARCELONA thought they were getting the ultimate playmaker when they paid a world record for the creative Brazilian 18 months ago..
But that is not how things have worked out for Coutinho at the Nou Camp and now the Spanish Champions are looking to offload their most expensive recruit at a knockdown fee.
Liverpool were reluctant sellers when they accepted Barca’s £105million offer plus the promise of a further £35million in potential bonus payments.
Yet the truth is that they have hardly missed Coutinho’s presence since Jurgen Klopp introduced a more dynamic pressing game at Anfield.
Coutinho has struggled to live up to expectations in Barcelona and no longer sees a future for himself while Ernesto Valverde remains as head coach.
His problem is that his options are severely limited by the fact that there are so few clubs who can afford Barcelona’s £80million asking price.
Yet at 26 he still has plenty to offer and having already proved that he can cope with the pace and physicality of English football, a return to one of the Premier League’s big six should not be discounted.
Winners: England
EDEN HAZARD
Lille to Chelsea £32m. Chelsea to Real Madrid £150m
He has been linked to a move to Real Madrid for the past three years and now it seems that Eden Hazard is finally about to achieve that ambition.
Yet he is joining a club in the middle of a Bernabeu crisis after finishing last season a distant third in La Liga, 19 points adrift of bitter rivals Barcelona and facing a summer of upheaval.
The big-spending Spaniards have given coach Zinedine Zidane the green light to launch a major overhaul of his under-performing squad.
Luka Jovic and Eder Militao have already arrived and negotiations are also underway for Ferland Mendy.
Hazard, though, will be the jewel in their summer crown and as such will be under huge pressure to perform right from the start for his new club.
But he will find himself in an uncomfortable position if Gareth Bale refuses to leave because the Welshman will have to be left out of the team to accommodate Hazard’s presence on the left side of Real’s attack.
It is a dilemma which Hazard could well do without as he seeks to establish himself in his new surroundings while under intense scrutiny.
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After seven years at Chelsea the easy-going Belgian is ready to take up the challenge of leading the Madrid revival.
But the grass is not always as it might appear and Hazard needs to hit the ground running in his new surroundings.
Winners: We’ll know in a year’s time.