Bad FC Barcelona Transfers: Ranking the 15 Worst Barça Signings of All Time

In these days, we've grown accustomed to Barcelona building their team up from their youth players, with the addition of one or two signings. But it certainly wasn't always like that. The reality is that for most of their history, Barça signed their best players away from other clubs, sometimes with some quite poor decision making, at that. 

Some of those signings have become historical figures at Camp Nou, while others have failed miserably.

In this top 15 we will explore Barça's worst signings ever, taking into account the amount of games played, minutes played and the transfer price they bought and sold them for.

Want to know who are the worst?

Start the slideshow and find out!

Bought from: Bayern Munich (2001)

Transfer fee: €8 million

Sold to: Mälmo (2004)

Transfer fee: €0 (Bosman Transfer)

Barça stats:

Games played: 27

Minutes played: 2035

Goals scored: 1

Patrick Anderson was expected to be a solid starter for Barcelona just like he had been for Bayern.

He wasn't.

Three years later he left for Malmo, never holding the central defender spot he was bought to cover.

Bought from: Chelsea FC (2006)

Transfer fee: €12 million

Sold to: AS Monaco (2009)

Transfer fee: €3 million

Barça stats:

Games played: 108

Minutes played: 5032

Goals scored: 16 (9)

What can I say about Guddy?

He just wasn't good enough to play at Barcelona. 

He failed as a forward, then as a midfielder. And now he's failing wherever he plays his football these days.

His career ended the moment he left Chelsea.

Bought from: Boca Juniors (2002)

Transfer fee: €11 million

Loaned-out to: Villarreal (2003 and 2004)

Sold to: Villarreal (2005)

Transfer fee: €7 million

Barça stats:

Games played: 40

Minutes played: 2258

Goals scored: 4(1)

Riquelme. Is there another player in the world with so much talent, but such a little heart?

Van Gaal tried him out, then got rid of him. 

Four goals scored as a Blaugrana says it all, really. 

He's not higher on this list only because he wasn't expensive at all, and was sold for a good figure in 2005.

Bought from: Cruzeiro (2002)

Transfer fee: €21 million

Loaned-out to: Benfica (January 2003)

Sold to: Benfica (2003)

Transfer fee: €15 million

Barça stats:

Games played: 39

Minutes played: 1433

Goals scored: 2

Geovanni was €21 million too expensive and was a gigantic bust for Barcelona.

Six months later he was loaned-out, and then sold, to Benfica, where Barcelona got €15 million in compensation money for their terrible buy. 

Bought from: Villarreal (2008)

Transfer fee: €16.5 million

Loaned-out to: Juventus (2009), Sevilla (2010)

Sold to: Sevilla (2011)

Transfer fee: €3 million

Barça stats:

Games played: 23

Minutes played: 1529

Goals scored: 0

Cáceres joined to be a starter from the first day off after a magnificent season playing on loan with Valladolid from Villarreal.

Sadly for him, a certain Gerard Piqué was also bought that summer, and he was reduced to a reserve role.

Then he was loaned out twice, finally making a move for Sevilla this summer with Barcelona losing 13 million euros in the process. 

Bought from: Arsenal FC (2008)

Transfer fee: €15 million

Loaned-out to: Stuttgart (2009), Birmingham (2010), VfL Wolsfburg (2011)

Sold to: No one. Still a Barcelona player.

Barça stats:

Games played: 36

Minutes played: 1702

Goals scored: 0 (3)

If Hleb was marvelous at Arsenal, he's been a headache for Barcelona.

He's never been featured in the first team, yet he remains a Blaugrana to this day even if he's loaned out every year.

It'll be hard for Rosell to see a single penny back from the 15 million euros originally spent on Aliaksandr. 

Bought from: Shakhtar Donetsk (2009)

Transfer fee: €25 million

Sold to: Shakhtar Donetsk (2010)

Transfer fee: €15 million

Barça stats:

Games played: 14

Minutes played: 1033

Goals scored: 0

Pep believed in Dmytro. For a year the Ukrainian tried his best to justify his massive price tag.

Then, Rosell sold him back for 10 million euros less.

Incredibly, that seems like a fantastic move looking at his recent form at Shakhtar.

Bought from: AS Monaco (2001)

Transfer fee: €17 million

Sold to: Olimpique Marseille (2003)

Transfer fee: €0 (Bosman Transfer)

Barça stats:

Games played: 43

Minutes played: 3529

Goals scored: 0

A move even worse than the Chygrynskiy one, Christanval was bought for 17 million euros from Monaco.

He was widely expected to be the next Thuram, but didn't even play up to Bogarde levels.

He left for free two years later.

The consolation prize? Barcelona got another Monaco CB in Rafa Márquez for 5 million euros. 

Needless to say, he was way better than Philippe.

Bought from: Valencia (2000)

Transfer fee: €24 million

Sold to: AS Monaco (2005)

Transfer fee: €0 (Bosman Transfer)

Barça stats:

Games played: 116

Minutes played: 5197

Goals scored: 7

Gerard was a huge, huge bust. He thrived at Valencia for one season and Barcelona pounced for the former La Masía star.

But Cesc Fábregas he is not (coincidentally, around the same time Cesc left), and he never became a starter at the Camp Nou, and was also frequently injured.

He left for Monaco in a Bosman in 2005 and didn't play there either. 

Bought from: Real Betis (2000)

Transfer fee: €16.5 million

Loaned-out to: Olympique Marseille (2001), Real Betis (2002)

Sold to: Real Betis (2003)

Transfer fee: €0 (Bosman Transfer)

Barça stats:

Games played: 26

Minutes played: 897

Goals scored: 2

Barcelona tried to get one back from the Figo to Madrid deal by buying 100% Merengue Alfonso from Betis.

And as a true Merengue he played, scoring only two goals and never becoming a starter in his season as a Blaugrana.

He was loaned, and eventually he returned to Betis in 2003 for exactly 16.5 million euros less than what he was sold for two years earlier.

Fittingly, Alfonso now plays friendlies as a Real Madrid veteran at the Bernabeu.

Even though he never played much for Madrid either.

Must be a reward for his time at Barcelona.

Bought from: Palmeiras (2008)

Transfer fee: €8 million

Loaned-out to: Bayern Leverkusen (2008), Racing Santander (2009 and 2010), Palmeiras (2011)

Sold to: No one. Still a Barcelona player.

Barça stats:

Games played: 0

Minutes played: 0

Goals scored: 0

Henrique wasn't that expensive a buy compared to others on this list. 

Then you look at his games and minutes played... Zero? Really? 

He played some preseason matches, and got to dress in a Blaugrana shirt, but it's extremely hard to look at him and not imagine B-U-S-T printed on his forehead.

Bought from: Arsenal FC (2000)

Transfer fee: €40 million

Sold to: No one (Retired)

Barça stats:

Games played: 118

Minutes played: 7344

Goals scored: 17 (3)

What?  €40 million for Overmars?

Emanuel Petit was also added as a "bonus" by Arsenal. 

He was a good player for Barcelona. But never an inch more than that.

Truth be said, Marc never justified his humongous price tag and wasn't the "New Figo" he was signed to be.

To add insult to injury, he retired at Barcelona, and they didn't get a single cent back from that transfer price. 

Bought from: Inter Milan (2009)

Transfer fee: €69.5 million (€49.5 million cash plus €20 million-rated Samuel Eto'o)

Loaned-out to: AC Milan (2010)

Sold to: AC Milan (2011)

Transfer fee: €24 million

Barça stats:

Games played: 46

Minutes played: 3342

Goals scored: 22 (13)

Ah yes, the infamous Zlatan transfer.

As you can see above, his performance was up to standards, and he left because of "philosophical" disagreements with Pep Guardiola.

But even then, there's just no way to justify a 40 million euro loss in under a season with Eto'o's transfer also in it as well.

Bad, bad, bad, business call.

But sporting-wise, it has been proven it was the right call to make.

Bought from: River Plate (2001)

Transfer fee: €35.9 million

Loaned-out to: AS Monaco (2004), Sevilla (2005), 

Sold to: Real Madrid (2007)

Transfer fee: €0 (Bosman Transfer)

Barça stats:

Games played: 148

Minutes played: 9775

Goals scored: 60 (6)

Saviola was bought as the Anti-Zidane. 

Supposedly, he was the next Maradona, but in reality, he had trouble being decent, let alone what his transfer price said he'd be. 

Now that you've stopped laughing at the pure thought of what that means, I'll also add that when he left, he left for Madrid. For free.

Failing just doesnt get much worse than Saviola, really.

At least we did get "The new Maradona" eventually.

Bought from: Palmeiras (2009)

Transfer fee: €14 million

Loaned-out to: Benfica (2009), Fiorentina (January 2010), Santos (2010), Cruzeiro (2011)

Sold to: No one. Still a Barcelona player.

Barça stats:

Games played: 0

Minutes played: 0

Goals scored: 0

Keirrison is the worst transfer ever for Barcelona.

Like fellow Brazilian bust Henrique, this guy obviously hasn't played a single official minute as a Blaugrana.

But at least Henrique has worn the Blaugrana shirt in preseason. Keirrison hasn't worn it. Ever.

If you can find a single picture of him with a Barcelona jersey, I swear you'll have one of the most rare images on Earth.

I doubt he even owns one, really, so I'm happy to say I've worn a Barcelona shirt more times than he ever has. 

And I assure you, I'm not worth 15 million euros.

Keirrison's not either.

I hope Laporta's enjoying the yacht he probably got out of the Henrique/Keirrison buying scam.  

Follow Andrés Ehrli on Twitter!  @ehrli