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Among the top three La Liga, who are the most expensive to sign in the team history? How are their performances? The two become parallel!

4:54am, 17 July 2025【Football】

As the most representative club in Spanish football, Barcelona and Real Madrid are undoubtedly two teams highly praised by fans. In addition to these two teams, Atletico Madrid has also emerged in recent years. Under the leadership of Simeone, it has become Spain's third giant-level team, forming a pattern of competing with Real Madrid and Barcelona. Therefore, in order to defeat the other two teams, they will strengthen each summer. Let’s take a look at who the most expensive signings in the history of these three teams are and how their performance is!

1. Ottoman Dembele's transfer value: 135 million euros

Team: Barcelona

First of all, let's talk about Barcelona's team's benchmark champion. He is Ottoman Dembele, who is now shining at Paris Saint-Germain. Time goes back to the summer of 2017. At that time, Barcelona encountered unprecedented difficulties. Neymar, who should have been trained as Messi's successor, was actually poached by Paris Saint-Germain. His opponent directly spent 222 million euros to terminate the contract, thus creating the highest transfer fee in football history and taking Neymar away. Under such circumstances, Barcelona was also a little at a loss. Although they received considerable funds, the whole world knew that they lacked the left winger, so it was very difficult for them to strengthen. In the end, they had to use a sky-high transfer fee of 135 million euros to introduce Ottoman Dembele, who was only 20 years old, from Dortmund at the time, at a premium, which was also the most expensive signing fee that created the team's history.

However, compared with Neymar, Dembele's ability is good, but he still cannot reach his height. In his first season at Barcelona, he was not very adapted to the pace of La Liga and Barcelona's system, so he only scored 4 goals in a total of 24 appearances, which made people vaguely feel the potential of "square-stock". Fortunately, in the 18-19 season, Dembele, who was gradually getting better, scored 14 goals, which was considered to have regained his reputation. But soon, due to injury, he missed most of the games in the 19-20 season and scored only 1 goal in total. Although his condition recovered in the 20-21 season, contributed 11 goals again, and became the league's assist king with 13 assists in the coming year, overall, his performance in Barcelona is not very consistent with his team's mark in history. He made a total of 185 appearances, only scored 40 goals and sent 42 assists. After returning to Paris, his goals in one season are close to his six-year data at Barcelona, which is indeed a bit disappointing. Perhaps, Dembele has no chemical reaction with Barcelona, leaving may be the best choice.

2. Eden Hazard's transfer value: 120 million euros

Team: Real Madrid

Let's talk about the most expensive signings in Real Madrid's team history. In the summer of 2019, since Ronaldo had left a year ago, and Gareth Bale also performed poorly, and there was a serious conflict with the team. Therefore, Real Madrid once again launched a superstar policy, and their goal was to Hazard, who played for Chelsea at the time. In the 18-19 season, Hazard's performance was amazing, scoring 21 goals and 17 assists throughout the season. He is one of the only four players in Premier League history who can contribute 15 goals and 15 assists in a single season. With his help, Chelsea also passed the UEFA Cup stage and finally successfully defeated London's old rival Arsenal and won the second UEFA Cup championship in team history. It can be said that Hazard, who was 28 years old at the time, was definitely a hot superstar at the time. So Real Madrid also hopes to bring him to the Bernabeu and eventually pays a transfer fee of 120 million euros.

However, what no one expected was that Hazard, who was obviously in his battle years, quickly fell after coming to Real Madrid. Throughout the 19-20 season, due to his constant struggle with injuries, he only played in the league for 15 games. He was either injured in training or kicked by his opponent in the game, and eventually scored only 1 goal. In the 20-21 season, the situation still did not change much, and during the recovery stage, Hazard's body shape began to distort, and was ridiculed by fans as "Burger King". In addition, Real Madrid was eliminated by Chelsea in the Champions League. After losing, Hazard played with his former teammates and smiled, which caused huge controversy for a while, and then was tragically hidden. In his four years at Real Madrid, Hazard has made a total of 76 appearances, scored 7 goals and assisted 12 times, which can be said to be a perfect match.

3. Joao Felix's transfer value: 127 million euros

Team: Atletico Madrid

Finally, let's talk about Atletico Madrid's team history, he is Felix. Back in the summer of 2019, after seeing his city rivals introducing Hazard, who was in a hot state, Atletico Madrid was not willing to be outdone. They directly negotiated with Benfica, the famous "European black store" Benfica, and finally got Felix from Benfica at a price of 127 million euros that created the highest recruitment fee in the team history. At that time, Felix was not yet 20 years old. In the past season, he performed quite well, scoring a total of 20 goals and 11 assists. He was not only selected as the Best Team of the Portuguese Super League and Best Team of the Europa League, but also won the Best Young Player of the Portuguese Super League. At the same time, in the official FIFA selection at the end of the year, he also surpassed many young talents and became the Golden Boy Award winner that year. There is no doubt that in terms of the height of his career, Felix has surpassed many of his predecessors.

In the early days of joining Atletico Madrid, his performance was quite satisfactory. He scored 9 goals and sent 6 assists in his first season, which is indeed in line with his 20-year-old age.. Immediately afterwards, he helped the team win the La Liga championship in the 20-21 season, and contributed 10 goals and 6 assists in the 21-22 season, and was elected as the best player of the season in Atletico Madrid. But unexpectedly, in the 22-23 season, his condition showed a significant decline, which made him fall directly from the team's rotation and was eventually rented out of the team. However, during his year at Barcelona, Felix once played a good performance, so Atletico Madrid also seized the opportunity and sent him to Chelsea for 52 million euros. After that, Felix was in a slump. Neither in the Blues nor later AC Milan, he had any outstanding performance. It is hard to imagine that he was a 25-year-old young man. As for the current situation, it is unlikely that Felix will be taken by the giants in the future.