Barcelona’s most expensive signing for every season since 2010

It’s fair to say Barcelona have enjoyed mixed fortunes when it comes to the transfer market over the past decade and a bit.

Having won La Liga seven times, the Copa del Rey five times and the Champions League twice, the 2010s will be looked back upon fondly by Barcelona supporters.

But they haven’t always got their biggest signings right and more recently they’ve been plunged into financial woe by poor management.

Raphinha has become the latest big-money signing to arrive at Camp Nou, and will almost certainly be their most expensive signing of the 2022 summer window with a fee of €58million paid to Leeds United. The Brazil international will be hoping to buck the trend of their most expensive signings of recent years.

We’ve looked back on their most expensive arrivals from each campaign since 2010-11 to see how they’ve fared.

David Villa (2010)

Let’s start with an inarguable success. Villa was signed in a €40million deal from Valencia in the summer of 2010 and ended his first campaign as a champion of both Spain and Europe, scoring the match-clinching goal in the 3-1 victory over Manchester United in the Champions League final.

A serious injury blighted his second season with the club, but by the time he left the Camp Nou for Atletico Madrid, where he claimed another title, Villa had won eight trophies with the Catalan giants.

David Villa wraps up the 2011 Champions League final 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Sgz4eKQNY2

— GOAL (@goal) May 29, 2020

Cesc Fabregas (2011)

It always felt like a matter of when and not if Fabregas would return to Barcelona from Arsenal, and the midfielder made the switch back to his boyhood club in a €34million move in August 2011 – with Alexis Sanchez Barca’s other headline arrival that summer.

But it was not quite a fairytale return for Fabregas, who appeared the perfect fit for Pep Guardiola’s midfield alongside compatriots Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.

There were obvious high points – he scored double figures in each of his three seasons, winning six trophies in total – but the move did not live up to expectations as Barca lost their grip on La Liga to Real Madrid in his debut campaign and Atletico Madrid in his final season.

Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets had a telepathic understanding as one of the greatest midfield trios of all time, meaning Fabregas’ job of establishing himself in his favoured position was always going to be difficult, and he was even booed by Barcelona supporters…