Tottenham’s ‘Magnificent 7’ signed with Gareth Bale money - Where are they now? | OneFootball

Replacing Gareth Bale with a player of similar quality was always going to be nigh-on impossible for Tottenham back in 2013.

The Welshman hit world-class levels during his final couple of years with Spurs and it was no surprise when Real Madrid signed him for £85.3 million.

Anticipating a record sale, Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and technical director Franco Baldini splashed the cash on seven players they believed had the potential to take the club to the next level in the aftermath Bale’s departure.

“Spurs have sold Elvis and bought the Beatles,” former Tottenham striker Garth Crooks declared back in August 2013.

A decade later and the ‘Magnificent Seven’ have all left Spurs - but where are they now?

Let’s take a closer look…

Paulinho

Signed for: £17 million

Club signed from: Corinthians

Compared to Frank Lampard thanks to his ability to score goals from midfield, the much-hyped Paulinho was a bitter disappointment at Tottenham.

The Brazilian midfielder played 67 games for Spurs, scoring 10 goals, before moving to Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande in 2015.

Paulinho surprisingly ended up at Barcelona for the 2017-18 campaign and won both La Liga and the Copa del Rey before moving back to Guangzhou.

After being released from his lucrative contract in June 2021, the South American joined Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia before returning to Corinthians a year later.

Christian Eriksen

Signed for: £11 million

Club signed from: Ajax

The most successful signing of the ‘Magnificent Seven’, Christian Eriksen spent six-and-a-half seasons at Tottenham, scoring 69 goals in 305 appearances.

The Danish midfielder was named Spurs’ Player of the Year in 2013-14 and 2016-17. He also made the Premier League’s PFA Team of the Year in 2017-18.

Eriksen joined Inter Milan in January 2020 and helped his current employers win the Serie A title in his second season in Italy.

However, Eriksen’s future in football was left in serious doubt after suffering a cardiac arrest while playing for Denmark at Euro 2020.

The 31-year-old managed to make a miraculous recovery and, against all the odds, returned to professional football in February 2022 following a 259-day absence with Premier League side Brentford.

"To go through what I've been through, being back is a wonderful feeling,” Eriksen, who revealed that he’d technically ‘died’ for five minutes, told reporters following his return to action.

"Everyone is here. My family, my parents, my kids, my mother-in-law and some doctors who have been helping me back and forth. What they've been through is even tougher than what I've been through."

After a six-month spell with Brentford, Eriksen secured a move to Manchester United and made 44 appearances during his debut campaign at Old Trafford, winning the League Cup in the process.

Roberto Soldado

Signed for: £26 million

Club signed from: Valencia

One of the most prolific and revered goalscorers in La Liga, the signing of Valencia’s Roberto Soldado felt like a major coup for Tottenham at the time.

However, the Spaniard struggled to hit a barn door in the Premier League. Seven goals in 52 appearances in England’s top flight was a dismal return for a striker of his calibre.

It wasn’t long before Soldado returned to Spain, signing for Villarreal in the summer of 2015.

“It’s like a thorn in my side and always will be as I wasn’t able to find a solution and give my best performance,” Soldado, reflecting on his failures at White Hart Lane, admitted in 2020.

The former Spain international, 38, then had spells with Fenerbahce and Granada before signing for Levante in 2021.

He spent two seasons with Levante - the second of which was played in Spain’s Segunda Division - but was a shadow of the once-lethal striker who lit up La Liga, scoring just 11 goals in 51 games.

Soldado recently left Levante and is a free agent at the time of writing. It surely won’t be too much longer before he calls time on his career.

Nacer Chadli

Signed for: £7 million

Nacer Chadli’s Premier League spell was largely forgettable; in fact, your average football fans would do well to remember anything the winger did during his five seasons (three with Tottenham and two with West Brom) in England.

The former Belgium international moved to Monaco in 2018, had a season on loan at Anderlecht the following year, and has been on the books of Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir since 2020.

The 33-year-old, who scored eight goals in 66 international appearances for his national team between 2011-2021, spent the 2022-23 campaign on loan at Westerlo in Belgium’s top league.

Etienne Capoue

Signed for: £9.3 million

Club signed from: Toulouse

Another average top-flight player who could have achieved more in north London, Etienne Capoue showed flashes of genuine high quality but never really convinced at Spurs, hence why he only managed to make 24 Premier League appearances for the club.

He went on to play a further 167 Premier League games with Watford, who signed the former France international for £6.3 million in July 2015, before joining Villarreal in January 2021.

Former Watford captain Troy Deeney has since told reporters that Capoue, who snubbed a move to Liverpool in favour of Tottenham, is the best player he ever played with.

"Unbelievable player,” Deeney was quoted saying by Goal in October 2022. "A great athlete and just a workhorse. And I just love the fact that he’s got a little bit of sh*thousery about him!"

Capoue produced a Man of the Match performance for Villarreal in the 2021 Europa League final against Manchester United and is still playing for the Yellow Submarine aged 35.

Vlad Chiriches

Signed for: £8.5 million

Club signed from: Steaua Bucharest

Few Tottenham fans had even heard of Vlad Chiriches when he was signed from Steaua Bucharest in August 2013.

The Romanian defender played 43 times for Spurs over the course of two season before being offloaded to Napoli in a deal worth £4.5 million.

The 33-year-old left Napoli for Sassuolo in 2020 following a season on loan at the Mapei Stadium – Citta del Tricolore, before joining Cremonese in 2022.

However, Chiriches was unable to prevent Cremonese dropping down into Serie B at the end of his debut season with the Italian outfit.

Erik Lamela

Signed for: £25.8 million

Club signed from: AS Roma

The last of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ to leave Tottenham, Erik Lamela was arguably the second most successful purchase behind Eriksen.

The Argentine winger scored 37 goals in 255 games for Spurs, including two ridiculous rabona goals that Spurs fans will always remember fondly.

Lamela was used as part of the deal to bring Sevilla’s talented winger Bryan Gil, 20, to north London in the summer of 2021.

He helped the Andalusian club win the 2022-23 Europa League, scoring one of the penalties in the shootout as Sevilla defeated Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma.

Casting his mind back to his time at Spurs, Lamela was quoted saying in 2021: “I remember [the Bale Seven]. It was a new project, with a lot of new players. Some of them I spent many years with, like Christian [Eriksen]. I was the last one!

“The era with [Mauricio] Pochettino I can say was the best, no? From when Mauricio arrived, the first season maybe wasn’t the best but after that we got better and better. We were always very close to the top of the league, second or third. I enjoyed every season there but to reach the Champions League final [in 2019] was a big success for the club.”

And what happened to Gareth Bale…?

Bale exceeded all expectations during his first five years at the Bernabeu, where he was part of a legendary attacking triumvirate alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.

Things were more difficult for him towards the end of his time in Madrid and he eventually returned to Tottenham on loan during the 2020-21 season.

Although his relationship with Real Madrid’s demanding supporters eventually broke down, Bale was still a massive success in Spain, where he won three La Liga titles and five Champions Leagues.

He also inspired Real Madrid to glory in the 2013-14 Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, scoring one of the most breathtaking goals of recent times.

The keen golfer had a spell with Los Angeles FC in Major League Soccer in 2022 but it was patently clear that he’d lost some of the hunger that had allowed him to scale such lofty heights during his illustrious career.

That said, he still led LAFC to their first MLS Cup title, scoring a dramatic late header to sent the final against Philadelphia Union to a penalty shootout.

Bale competed with Wales at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar before calling time on his career aged 33.

“My decision to retire from international football has been by far the hardest of my career,” Bale said. “My journey on the international stage is one that has changed not only my life but who I am.”

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have achieved my dream of playing the sport I love. It has truly given me some of the best moments of my life. The highest of highs over 17 seasons that will be impossible to replicate, no matter what the next chapter has in store for me.”