🤑 Real Madrid's five most expensive players and how they fared | OneFootball

The Eden Hazard transfer saga has finally ended with the winger putting pen to paper on a deal with Real Madrid.

An initial €100m fee, plus €40m in add-ons, will make the Belgian the most expensive player in club history.

We look at the men who previously occupied the top five positions and how they fared.

Gareth Bale – €100m – 🤔

For three years, this was the most expensive purchase ever and it is tough to say whether the Welshman has been worth it.

During his six seasons at the Santiago Bernabéu, he has suffered from 31 separate injuries – meaning he missed over 100 games in that span.

When he has played, he has blown hot and cold too and at times been a figure of derision and frustration.

That said, he has came up big in some important moments and has won every single honour available to him in Spain, including three consecutive Champions League titles.

The part he played off the bench (scoring that goal) in Kiev to secure the third of those and his glorious extra-time winner in the 2014 Clásico Copa del Rey final will always be remembered fondly.

Cristiano Ronaldo – €94m – 😀

Worth every penny and then some.

There isn’t a single honour, team or individual, that he failed to deliver during his successful period in the Spanish capital.

A case can be made that he is the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots, let alone the greatest Real Madrid player ever.

For all the money he spent and all of the galácticos who arrived, this was Florentino Pérez’s best piece of business.

Zinedine Zidane – €77.5m – 🤤

Another astute piece of Pérez transfer work, right in the heart of his big spending spree.

Hazard has big shoes to fill in taking his man’s place in the top three – a man who will now coach him and who he worshipped growing up.

Zidane, Ronaldo and Bale all scored crucial goals for Real in Champions League finals and the pressure will be on the Belgian to deliver in similar big games.

But Zizou was so much more than that famous goal at Hampden Park against Bayer Leverkusen.

He was part of that rare breed of player who was worth the price of admission on his own as it was truly watching an artist at work.

James Rodríguez – €75m – 👎

The Colombian is one of that famous contingent of players who you can’t help but feel was signed on the back of an impressive World Cup.

He dazzled for his country in 2014 and convinced Real to spend €75m to sign him from Monaco.

But things haven’t worked out for him at all and of his five seasons in Madrid, two of them have been spent on loan with Bayern Munich.

James never managed to convince Zidane and was left devastated when he failed to even make the matchday squad for the 2017 Champions League final.

There have been some good moments and on paper, his stats do appear impressive but with Zidane back in charge, the chances of him ever justifying that massive fee appear very slim.

Kaká – €67m – 😬

Kaká was at the peak of his powers when he decided to swap Milan for Madrid in 2009.

Arriving in the same summer as Cristiano Ronaldo, he didn’t come close to hitting the same heights as the Portuguese superstar.

A Ballon d’Or winner just two years previously, he never came close to recapturing that form at the Bernabéu in a move he regretted and admitted was a mistake years later.

Injuries stopped his career there before it started and by the time he got up to speed, the Brazilian struggled to convince José Mourinho.

Even under the man who kickstarted his Milan career, Carlo Ancelotti, he fared no better and left to rejoin the Rossoneri in 2013.