Kylian Mbappe tops list of most expensive signings that later left their clubs for free

Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe and Kaka

Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe and Kaka all moved for massive fees - and then as free agents

Seven years after he signed from Monaco in a deal worth £165.7 million, Kylian Mbappe has left Paris Saint-Germain to sign for Real Madrid as a free agent.

The French forward is not the first big-money player to see out his contract and move on for free. Since the landmark Bosman ruling in 1995 that allowed for the free movement of players no longer under contract, dozens of stars who were previously signed at great expense have gone on to leave their clubs for no transfer fee.

Here are the seven most expensive signings ever to later depart as free agents.

7 – Kaka

When Real Madrid signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for £80 million in the summer of 2009, it was the second time they’d broken the world transfer record in a little over a month.

The first came when they signed Kaka from AC Milan for £58 million, kicking off one of the most lavish periods of business by a single club in the history of the game, with Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso also arriving ahead of the 2009-10 season.

Kaka was just two years removed from winning the Ballon d’Or and still, amid the rise of Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, had a credible claim to being considered the best player in the world.

But the Brazilian playmaker never lived up to expectations in Madrid, forced to play second fiddle to Ronaldo and hampered by injuries. He departed four years later, returning to Milan in a free transfer, with just one La Liga title and a Copa del Rey to add to his trophy collection and a mediocre return of 29 goals from 120 appearances.

6 – Nicolas Pepe

The memory of Nicolas Pepe’s deeply underwhelming time at the Emirates has all been banished by the success Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have enjoyed in recent seasons, rising to the status of genuine title contenders.

But the Ivory Coast winger will go down as one of the worst signings in Premier League history after he departed the club for free last summer.

Pepe became one of the most sought-after players in Europe at the end of the 2018-19 season, a campaign in which he’d 22 goals in 38 Ligue 1 games for Lille. Manchester United, Inter Milan and Barcelona were all reportedly readying moves for the free-scoring forward, but it was Arsenal who won the race for his signature, sealing a club-record £72 million deal.

In his first three seasons in England, Pepe scored just 27 goals from 112 appearances and rapidly slid down the pecking order in north London. He was then loaned back to Ligue 1 for the 2022-23 season with Nice, who elected against exercising a purchase option in the deal.

His Arsenal contract was then terminated with one year reaming on the deal and he joined Turkish side Trabzonspor as a free agent.

READ MOREThe 10 most expensive Arsenal transfers of all time

5 – Gonzalo Higuain

For much of their run of Serie A dominance throughout the 2010s, Juventus were widely regarded as one of the smartest transfer market operators in Europe. The Bosman signing of Andrea Pirlo, the cut-price acquisition of Carlos Tevez and the pick-up of Paul Pogba on a free all stood as examples of the Turin club’s savvy approach to team building.

The club-record €90 million signing of player just a few months away from his 30th birthday always felt like a deviation from Juve’s typical best practices, though.

Gonzalo Higuain was coming off not only the best season of his career in the summer of 2016 but also an all-time-great Serie A scoring campaign. His 26 goals for Napoli equalled a high mark for the Italian top flight that had stood for 87 years.

Signing their rivals’ best player was a huge statement of intent for Juventus. Yet while it didn’t exactly backfire to the point it cost them their grip on the Serie A title – they still won the league for another four years in succession – they didn’t get anything close to value for money from the Argentinian striker.

After a fine debut season for the Old Lady in which he scored 32 goals, Higuain’s production dipped. He ended up with a total of 66 goals in 149 games for the club and was loaned out to AC Milan and Chelsea before his contract was terminated by mutual agreement in 2020, allowing him to join Inter Miami in MLS.

4 – Gareth Bale

The very summer Kaka departed the Bernabeu to return to AC Milan, Real Madrid again broke the world transfer record to sign a player who would later leave for free. The difference this time, though, was that there would be no sense of underachievement at the end of Gareth Bale’s time in Madrid.

Arriving from Tottenham for £86 million in 2013, Bale helped end Los Blancos’ mini-drought in the Champions League, scoring as they beat rivals Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra time in the final to secure a first European title since 2002.

The Welshman remained a Madrid player for nine years, scoring 106 goals in 258 games and contributing to three La Liga titles and five Champions League triumphs – including a spectacular bicycle kick against Liverpool in the 2018 final.

Bale returned to Spurs on loan for the 2020-21 season before signing for Los Angeles FC when his Madrid contract expired in 2022. He retired the following January at age 33.

3 – Paul Pogba

Owning the unique distinction of leaving the same club twice as a free agent, Paul Pogba’s second coming at Manchester United promised a whole lot more than it ultimately delivered.

Pogba had been an academy standout and an FA Youth Cup winner at Old Trafford before leaving for Juventus as a teenager. In Turin, he became a star, winning three Serie A titles and developing into of Europe’s most promising midfielders.

United had to fork out a world-record £89 million to get him back in the summer of 2016, part of a flurry of deals that included the signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free from Paris Saint-Germain, the £28 million arrival of Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund and the £30 capture of Eric Bailly from Villarreal.

Pogba became a World Cup winner while with United, helping France to glory on the international stage in 2018, but he never came close to such heights at club level. A double of Europa League and EFL Cup in 2017 were his only major honours in a four-season second spell with the Red Devils that ended with a return to Juventus as a free agent in 2022.

GO DEEPER – Paul Pogba: What went wrong for the Man Utd, Juventus enigma now facing football oblivion?

2 – Eden Hazard

A deal that has a strong case to be considered the worst transfer of all time, Real Madrid paid an initial £89 million to sign Eden Hazard from Chelsea in 2019, with a potential further £60 million in conditional add-ons.

The diminutive Belgian winger had been one of the best players in the Premier League over his nine seasons with the Blues, winning two league titles, two Europa Leagues and the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award.

Hazard signed a £400,000-a-week contract with Madrid and was signed with the intention of replacing Cristiano Ronaldo, who’d joined Juventus a year earlier, as the focal point of Zinedine Zidane’s side’s attack.

But injuries and poor form meant Hazard never came close to replicating his best Chelsea form in Spain. He played just 76 games over four seasons and mustered only seven goals. His contract was terminated by mutual agreement in June 2023 and he retired four months later, aged just 32.

1 – Kylian Mbappe

Seven years ago, an 18-year-old Kylian Mbappe – fresh off firing Monaco to an unexpected Ligue 1 title – signed for Paris Saint-Germain.

Although the move was initially a loan deal, it included a clause obligating the Parisians to sign the teenager outright the following summer for £165.7 million.

At the time, that made Mbappe the second most-expensive player in football history, behind only Neymar, his new team-mate who was signed from Barcelona in 2017 for £198 million.

And while PSG have missed out on a potentially huge return for Mbappe now that he has joined Real Madrid on a free, the production he offered in his seven seasons in the French capital means the deal to sign him from Monaco was no waste of money. He departs as the club’s all-time leading scorer, with 256 goals from 308 games, and was the driving force behind six Ligue 1 titles and a run to the 2019-20 Champions League final.

READ MOREThe best Bosman signings Real Madrid have ever made as Kylian Mbappe joins