Top 10 Football Transfers: Summer 2009

Published by William | Filed under Football (aka soccer)

(Note:  The original title of this article was “Friendly Faces Find New Places” but the SEO warlords here at WSN were strongly opposed.  I would like to formally apologize for our lifeless title.  With that being said….)

Hello everybody!!  Can you guys tell me, what time is it?!?!  (Dude saying “GAME TIME, HOOO!”….Shut it.) That’s right!!  It’s football season!!  Despite how much I know you all love the MLS, J-League, and other random football events that occur over the summer, the truth is that everyone one of us have been counting down the days until the leagues of Europe kick it back into high gear.  However, amidst the lack of actual football being played, there is an infinite amount of stuff that went down over the summer for us to analyze and discuss.  Many of the world’s top footballers will be wearing new kits this season as the transfer window was record breaking and one to remember.  (Post regarding the preposterous amounts of cash that was slung around, coming soon.)  Let’s take a look at the summer’s top 10 european transfers:

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid from Manchester United – £80m) – Now that the never-ending transfer soap opera surrounding CR7 (excuse me, CR9) is over, we can start to focus on what’s important.  Ridiculing and criticizing the 24 year old’s every move!  Kidding.  Sort of.  But seriously, along with the acquisition of Kaká and Benzema, if Los Galacticos do not capture some hardware this year, there will be some very unhappy fans at the Bernabeu.  After accomplishing all that he could in the English Premiership with United, Ronaldo will now have to show how good he really is as he adapts to the slower, more technical Spanish game.  Will he live up to the hype?  And oh yeah, £80m transfer fee was a world record, blah, blah, blah.  Congratulations.  Can you send some of that over to China so I can eat something other than noodles?  Thanks.

2. Kaká (Real Madrid from AC Milan – £59m) – The Brazilian superstar parts ways with Série A’s AC Milan after 6 fantastic seasons to join the likes of Ronaldo on the Real Madrid ‘Dream Team’.  Kaká, who was signed for a world record transfer fee before it was quickly trumped by his new Portuguese teammate, has said along with AC Milan officials that both sides wished for him to remain with the Italian side and that the transfer would have been much less imminent had it not been for Milan’s unfortunate economic situation.  However, the deal is done and he can now focus on winning more championships with his new star-studded side.

3. Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan from Barcelona -  No transfer fee) – After months of rumors and speculation, Samuel Eto’o has found a new home in Italy with Inter Milan.  The Cameroon striker, who scored 36 goals in 52 appearances last year in Barcelona’s treble-winning season, was initially linked with a move to spearhead the newly renovated Manchester City attack but finds himself as San Siro’s newest favorite forward thanks to a deal that involved a swap for Inter’s star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic as well as some cash from the Catalans.  My question is why were both Eto’o and Barca manager Pep Guardiola so adamant about a move?  I always prefer to operate under the contention that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  But hey, what do I know?  (Interesting Fact:  Along with Madrid’s Raúl, Eto’o is the only other player to score in two UEFA Champions’ League Finals.  I’ll bet Inter was aware of this when considering to move Mr. Ibrahimovic who is notorious for failing to show up on the big stage…)

4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona from Inter Milan – £50m) – The 27 year old Swedish international joins the European Champions Barcelona en lieu of a deal that sends Samuel Eto’o to Inter Milan.  Ibrahimovic won the 2009 Capocannoniere award for Top Scorer in Serie A with 29 goals in 46 appearances while leading Inter to their 4th straight Serie A league title.  The big question mark that remains about Zlatan is his tendency to be ineffective when performing on Europe’s biggest stage in UEFA Champions League matches.

5. Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City from Arsenal – £25m) – After somewhat of a bitter fallout with the Gunners, Adebayor’s wish has been granted as he joins Robinho, Tévez, and the rest of the revamped Manchester City.  The 25-year old Togolese forward scoring total fell from 30 goals in 07’-08’ to 16 in 08’-09’, which was attributed by many to his unhappiness at Arsenal.  Now that he is hopefully in a better mood (and conveniently has a few extra pounds in his pocket), perhaps we will see him do what we all know he is capable of doing.

6. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid from Lyon – £35m) – Benzema is the third biggest signing by Real Madrid this offseason and looks to be the final piece to their offseason shopping spree.  The 21-year old French forward, who has been dubbed by teammates as the next Ronaldo (Brazil’s Ronaldo that is), scored 12 goals in 19 Champions League matches last season and has scored 6 in 24 French national team appearances.  With Cristiano and Kaká feeding him balls, don’t be surprised if he scores 25+ goals this season.

7. Carlos Tévez (Manchester City from Manchester United – £25m) – The Argentine international striker joins Mark Hughes’ club in hopes of receiving a little more love from his manager than he did from his former at United.  The offseason media banter between Tévez and Sir Alex Ferguson has still failed to cease with the latest swipe coming from Ferguson, saying Carlos was “not worth the 25 million City paid”.  The former United fan favorite, who scored 34 goals in 99 total appearances for the Red Devils, will get the opportunity to prove his worth in the Manchester Derby on September 20th.

8. Michael Owen (Manchester United from Newcastle United – Undisclosed/No transfer fee) – While many of us sit here, laugh, and shake our heads as we question United’s acquisition of veteran striker Michael Owen, I get this funny feeling Sir Alex may be the one having the last laugh.  For starters, they acquired him for free.  That’s right, free.  Along with this risk-free investment for the debt riddled giants, the Red Devils now have a seasoned veteran that has well-proven over the years that he can still score goals (which he will surely do) and will be a fantastic spark off the bench as he fills the void for the recently departed Carlos Tévez.  While he is clearly never going to replace the former No. 7, he may very well have fans talking about the new one.

9. Glen Johnson (Liverpool from Portsmouth – £17m) – After snubbing out generous offers from Manchester City and his former club Chelsea (more than he is set to receive from the Reds), Glen Johnson arrives at Anfield as the most expensive defender in the history of Liverpool.  The right back joins a Liverpool squad that came within 4 points of stealing the Premiership title from United and has resigned nearly all members of last year’s squad.  Johnson’s choice was easy when he and manager Rafa Benítez found common ground on their distaste for former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.  It will be interesting to see if the England international can prove Jose wrong.

10. Roque Santa Cruz (Manchester City from Blackburn Rovers – £17.5m) – After two seasons with the Blackburn Rovers, the Paraguayan international reunites with former manager Mark Hughes and a new look Manchester City club that is looking to make some noise this season in the Premier League standings.  Along with Robinho and the newly added Carlos Tévez and Emmanuel Adebayor, City now boasts one of the most intriguing attacking fleets in all of Europe.  After scoring 23 goals for Blackburn in the 07-08’ campaign, Santa Cruz will be looking to improve on his quiet 6 goal performance from last season.

Other Notable Transfers:

With regards to the ever so majestic Top 10 list, a line had to be drawn to comply with its laws.  Here are some other notable transfers that occurred this summer.  Let us know who you feel should/should not have been included in the top 10 and others that we may have missed that were worthy of discussion:

Yuri Zhirkov (Chelsea from CSKA Moscow – £18m) – The FA Cup champions Chelsea, despite being rumored to be in the market for a ‘big name’ player, made little noise this offseason with Zhirkov being their lone acquisition.  Dubbed by many as the “Russian Ronaldinho”, Zhirkov could very well be the missing link to a Chelsea club that seemed to have hit their stride at the end of last season.

Raul Albiol (Real Madrid from Valencia – £13m) – Amidst Real’s tantalizing off season acquisitions, they made sure to save some chips to purchase a big named defenseman as well.  The 23-year old Spanish international makes the move from Valencia to lead a defense that should have plenty of cushion to work with as Ronaldo, Kaká, and Benzema lead the attack.

Jô (Everton from Manchester City – loan) – Jô rejoins Everton on loan from Manchester City after playing 11 matches on loan for the club last season.  The Brazilian striker, who scored 5 goals in 11 appearances last season, will be with Everton for the entire season with the option of making the move permanent at the end of the year.  Everton came on strong at the end of last season and hopes to continue the momentum as they look to break in to the top 4.