6 Players Who Reached Greatness After Leaving Big Clubs

As a footballer, signing for a top club should be the pinnacle of your career.

However, for some players the opposite is true, and they had to leave a prestigious team to go on and reach their true potential.

Whether it didn’t work out, the fans were on their back or they never even got their opportunity to shine, all of the players on this list went on to achieve greatness after making a move.

Thierry Henry

In 1999, Thierry Henry was a World Cup winner who had just signed for defending Serie A champions Juventus, one of the best teams in Europe at the time. Unfortunately for Henry, and as it turns out seriously unfortunate for Juventus, the French forward's playing time in Turin was pretty limited, leading to them cashing in after one season for £11 million and reuniting ‘Titi’ with his long-term mentor Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. 

The rest they say is history. 

During Henry’s eight-year spell at the Gunners, he established himself as one of the game’s greatest-ever forwards, scoring a club-record 228 times and lifting multiple domestic trophies including two Premier Leagues and three FA Cups.

Kevin De Bruyne

As a Chelsea fan, it pains me to say this is the first of two players that slipped through their grasp. What makes it worse is that they are both Premier League legends and future hall of famers.

Kevin De Bruyne signed for the club from Genk in 2012 but was immediately sent out on loan to Werder Bremen, where he had a successful spell, scoring 10 goals. He returned in 2013 to play under the returning Jose Mourinho but seemingly failed to impress as he battled for a place on the left wing which his Belguin team-mate Hazard had made his own. 

De Bruyne was sold to Wolfsburg after making only three appearances for the Blues, but KDB had a point to prove. After a positional tweak found him moved to attacking midfielder, De Bruyne flourished in Germany, scoring 16 goals and registering 27 assists in his debut season as he picked up the German player of the year 2015.

After another successful season the following year, Man City were convinced to shell out £58 million for his services, which now seems a bargain considering he went on to win six Premier League titles, a Champions League, and countless other trophies alongside his 173 assists. 

That didn’t hurt at all.

Mohammed Salah

Could you imagine a trio of Hazard, Salah and Kevin De Bruyne?

Well, Jose Mourinho decided that there was too much talent for one team and oversaw the transfers of the latter two from his Chelsea side.

But there is a beautiful thing about hindsight, and this list is about players who had to leave to go on and become the players they turned into.

Salah had successive loans at Fiorentina and Roma before Roma made the move permanent in 2016 after an impressive season where he scored 15 goals and helped lead them to a third-place finish. The season after followed suit and Liverpool, who missed out on Salah’s signature when he originally moved to Chelsea, swooped in to add him to Jurgen Klopp’s exciting team.

This proved a masterstroke, as the Egyptian winger reached heights nobody could have predicted, scoring 44 goals in his debut season at Anfield. Since then, he has scored over 200 goals for the Reds and won every trophy at club level, and he looks set to add even more silverware to his collection this season after another stellar campaign.

Ok, this one hurt a bit.

Andrea Pirlo

It seems inconceivable that a team would not appreciate the sublime talent of Andrea Pirlo, but that is exactly what happened at Inter Milan.

However, not all the blame can be placed at their feet. It wasn’t until Pirlo made the (very) short move to Milan rivals AC in the summer of 2001 that he found the position that would transform his career under the tutelage of Carlo Ancelotti.

Placed in front of the back four, Pirlo used his wide range of passing to dictate the tempo of the game, while his calm persona was legendary when playing on the biggest stage where he was instrumental in winning two Champions Leagues and a World Cup. He famously stated that he spent the day before the World Cup final sleeping and playing PlayStation.

His class regularly placed him among the world’s best players. He achieved a top-10 finish in the Balon d’Or on three occasions and won the Serie A Player of the Year award three times. 

Gerard Pique

While the rest of the players on this list had to leave a big club, technically Pique had to return to one before making a name for himself.

The legendary Centre Back left Barcelona’s academy for Manchester United in 2004 and spent four years attempting to break into the first team, before deciding to rejoin Barcelona in 2008 for £5 million.

It didn’t take him long to establish himself at the heart of defence alongside Carlos Puyol, forming a formidable partnership that would dominate club and International football. During his fourteen-year spell back in Catalonia, Pique won everything there is to win in the game, including three Champions Leagues, nine La Liga titles, a European Championship with Spain and the crowning glory World Cup in 2014. 

Samuel Eto’o

Samuel Eto’o, the final player on our list left the biggest club in football, Real Madrid, where he spent three years, but only made three appearances.

After spending a season on loan at Mallorca, he made the move permanent in 2000 and scored 54 goals during his spell with the club, convincing Barcelona and manager Frank Rijkaard that he was the striker to lead their line. They were proved correct as Eto’o hit the ground running, playing a huge role in their La Liga success in his debut season. He earned the top scorer award the following year as Barcelona clinched a La Liga and Champions League double.

In total, Eto’o would score 108 goals in just 144 games for Barcelona before Pep Guardiola sanctioned his transfer in 2009 as part of a swap deal with Inter Milan for Swedish striker Ibrahimovic. Eto’o would have the last laugh as part of the deal, sealing a historic treble with the Italian side under Jose Mourinho.

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