Antony, Pogba, Griezmann & the biggest €100m flops of all time

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 9 Sept 2023 14:41 BST
• 6 min read

There have been 12 footballers in history who have been sold for transfer fees of €100 million or more.. And unfortunately, many more of these big-money transfers have proven to be failures rather than successes.

Indeed, it can be argued that up to ten €100m deals have been flops. Here we go through the biggest €100m flops in football history.

Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool to Barcelona, 2018) - €145m

The third most expensive footballer in history and literally the most expensive flop ever.

After Ousmane Dembele failed to immediately replace Neymar in his first six months at Barcelona, the Blaugrana threw more money at the problem by purchasing Philippe Coutinho for an outrageous initial fee of €121m plus bonuses.

The move turned out to be a disaster for all parties as Coutinho failed to make an impact on the team, regularly taking up the same positions as Lionel Messi before the Argentine left the club.

Coutinho returned to Barca after a mixed loan spell at Bayern Munich in 2019-20, and things failed to get any better upon his return.

In January 2022, he was allowed to leave on loan to Aston Villa, with Barca still paying a significant portion of his wages. They are unlikely to ever get a transfer fee back for him.

Joao Felix (Benfica to Atletico Madrid, 2019) - €126m

Big things were expected of Joao Felix when he signed for Los Colchoneros in 2019 for a club-record fee, following an impressive debut season in Portugal.

Felix had registered 15 goals and seven assists in 26 Primeira Liga fixtures and was deemed as the perfect replacement for Antoine Griezmann, who joined Barcelona.

Indeed, many experts hailed Felix as the most exciting youngster to come out of Portugal since Cristiano Ronaldo.

However, his three years in the Spanish capital have been miserable.

Although he has shown glimpses of his undoubted talent, he has not been able to replicate the influence that Griezmann had on the team, so much so that they re-signed the Frenchman in the summer of 2021.

Felix has been penalised by manager Diego Simeone’s defensive style of play and has managed a disappointing 15 goals over three seasons. He joined Chelsea for a period on loan, which was again poor. But he is about to start life playing for Barcelona, in a loan deal away from Barca.

Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid to Barcelona, 2019)

Tactically this was a transfer that always seemed doomed to fail from the outset - and it proved to be so.

If you are a short, skilful, left-footed support striker, you have no chance of prospering in the same team as Lionel Messi. Just ask Paulo Dybala when it comes to the Argentina national team.

Antoine Griezmann and Messi often occupied the same spaces, while the Frenchman was at times shifted out of position in order to co-exist in the same team as the Argentine superstar.

In two years, he scored a very meagre 21 league goals and just four in the Champions League. A very poor return given how much Barca spent for him. He failed to win either La Liga or the Champions League.

Barcelona eventually agreed to sell him at a big loss back to Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2021.

Romelu Lukaku (Inter to Chelsea, 2021) - €115m

Romelu Lukaku was meant to be the final piece of the jigsaw at Stamford Bridge when he returned to the club in 2021.

Chelsea had won the Champions League without a natural number 9 and Lukaku was signed to take the Blues to Premier League glory.

But his numbers of eight Premier League goals all season were way off what was expected for a €115m outlay.

Lukaku didn’t fit into Chelsea’s style of play and then created chaos at the end of December 2021 when he gave an interview declaring his unhappiness, criticising manager Thomas Tuchel and saying he wanted to return to Inter.

Lukaku was dropped, fined and while he subsequently apologised and is back in the fold, he never recovered and returned to Inter on loan after just one season at Chelsea.

Ousmane Dembele (Dortmund to Barcelona, 2017)

Barcelona were held to ransom by Dortmund as they sought a replacement for Neymar when the Brazilian joined PSG in the summer of 2017.

Having just recouped the biggest transfer fee of all time, they were forced to pay over the odds for young French winger Dembele, who had shown plenty of potential first with Rennes, then with BVB. A €105m deal was thrashed out, with a possible €40m to follow in bonuses.

Dembele’s time at Barcelona, though, was dominated by injury problems, which have seen him fail to get anything close to his best.

The winger then committed the sin of moving to PSG, having enjoyed a decent campaign with Barca, winning the LaLiga title in 2022/23 season.

Paul Pogba (Juventus to Man Utd, 2016) - €105m

Some may consider Pogba’s inclusion on this list as rather unfair – and perhaps it is exaggerated to call him a flop.

But what cannot be denied is that the France World Cup winner has fallen way short of expectations after returning to Man Utd for a club-record fee in 2016.

Pogba was meant to be the catalyst for a Man Utd side that had struggled ever since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013. But eight years since Ferguson left and Man Utd are still miles off challenging for the Premier League or Champions League.

Pogba has been wildly inconsistent, struggled with numerous injuries and shown that he is more of a supporting actor than a leading actor.

Eden Hazard (Chelsea to Real Madrid, 2019) - €100m

Eden Hazard’s transfer to Madrid had long been a case of when, not if, he would go, but as it’s turned out the ‘when’ was much more critical than it seemed.

Coming off his most impressive individual season at Chelsea, the then-28-year-old was granted his dream move to Los Blancos as a Galactico in 2019.

However, arriving overweight for pre-season laid down a marker for a troubled first three seasons. A talisman who often carried his team to success is now being brought along for the ride, with injuries and poor discipline to blame.

Since arriving at Real Madrid, the once unplayable Belgian has had more injuries than goal contributions.

It's thought he is now looking to retire from the game.

Antony (Ajax to Man Utd, 2022) - €100m

Antony joined Man Utd in 2022 despite Ajax turning down initial approaches for the winger. In the end, Man Utd ended up over-paying for the winger, in a bid to satisfy the demands of Erik ten Hag.

Antony bagged four Premier League goals in his inaugural season but has not looked physically up to the mark. There is no question that he fits Ten Hag's blueprint but his end product has been wayward. Given the price that Man Utd paid, Antony has been nowhere near good enough.