Real Madrid transfers: the 10 best and 10 worst signings of the last 20 years... from capture of Cristiano Ronaldo to bizarre loan deal for West Ham's Julien Faubert

• Real Madrid consistently sign the world's most talented players every year
• But some purchases have worked out while others have been huge flops
• Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and Zinedine Zidane were top signings
• But Julien Faubert, Kaka and Royston Drenthe deals didn't work out

By Pete Jenson for MailOnline

Published: 04:31 EST, 10 July 2015 | Updated: 05:44 EST, 10 July 2015

The ultimate big spenders, Real Madrid inevitably splash out on top talent from around the world each and every summer.

Their signings include the world's most expensive footballer, five of the top 10 priciest stars in the history of the game and their tendency to spend big bucks shows no signs of stopping.

Here, Sportsmail's Pete Jenson takes a look at the 10 best and 10 worst Real Madrid signings from the last 20 years.

THE BEST 

David Beckham 

No one could really say the 2003 signing of David Beckham for £24.5million was a success on the field because it coincided with three trophyless seasons. But off the pitch Real Madrid's commercial value went into orbit with Beckham winning hearts and minds in Asia and the US.

David Beckham's early days at Real Madrid were trophyless but he did help the club commercially

Gonzalo Higuain

Signed as a 19-year-old from River Plate for £9m it took Gonzalo Higuain a long time to win over supporters but when he finally left for Napoli in 2013 he had scored important goals to put win the club trophies and he made them money when he left.

Gonzalo Higuain had a tough job in convincing supporters of his quality but he scored some important goals

Ronaldo 

Ronaldo's best years were behind him when he signed in 2002 for £33m but he was still explosively brilliant at times and although the goals didn't lead to too many trophies he is still the reason why the call Cristiano Ronaldo 'Cristiano' at Madrid – there's only one Ronaldo.

Ronaldo arrived at Real Madrid with his best days behind him but he was still explosively brilliant at times

He's still got it! Real Madrid legend Ronaldo

Claude Makelele

Real Madrid signed Claude Makelele in 2000 for £10m and never really appreciated how good he was until president Florentino Perez refused to give him the pay rise he wanted and he left. In the next three years Real stopped winning things and Chelsea (Makelele's new club) started to pick up silverware.

Claude Makelele proved to be key to Real Madrid's silverware winning after he left to join Chelsea

Roberto Carlos 

Roberto Carlos signed in 1996 for £4.5m and made the No 3 shirt his for a decade. It was his pass to Zidane for the very special goal in Glasgow that won the 2002 Champions League final. It was an awful pass and the fact that Zizou buried it is what makes it such a great goal. But so much else of what he did was deliberately brilliant and he is still thought very highly of by Madrid fans.

Roberto Carlos is still thought very highly by Real Madrid fans after holding the No 3 shirt for a decade

Pedja Mijatovic 

Pedja Mijatovic scored the goal that beat Juventus in the 1998 Champions League final ending Real Madrid's 32-year wait for their seventh European Cup. He was an overwhelming success and went on to represent the club well as sporting director, signing Higuain.

Pedja Mijatovic scored against Juventus in the 1998 European Cup final and was a huge success

Fernando Redondo 

Fernando Redondo's back-heel at Old Trafford will live forever in the memory after he was signed for just £3m. He supplied the pre-Zidane magic before he fell out with new president Perez and left for AC Milan in 2000.

Fernando Redondo was magical for Real Madrid but he left under a cloud for AC Milan in 2000

Zinedine Zidane 

Zinedine Zidane scored the goal that won the ninth European Cup for Madrid and his fantasy football left a generation of Real Madrid supporters spellbound.

Zinedine Zidane scored a brilliant volleyed goal in the 2002 Champions League final in Glasgow

He's still got it! Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane

Sergio Ramos 

Sergio Ramos signed from Sevilla as a 19-year-old for £20m and went on to play for the club in three different positions, wearing the captain's armband and scoring the injury-time goal that took the 2014 Champions League final into extra-time enabling the team to win the Decima.

Sergio Ramos was a fantastic signing for Real Madrid but is now wanted by Manchester United

Cristiano Ronaldo 

Cristiano Ronaldo signed from Manchester United in 2008 for a world record fee of £80m. Next season if he scores 11 goals he will have become the club's all-time record goalscorer in just nine seasons. His ratio of more than a goal a game beggars belief.

Cristiano Ronaldo is paraded around the Santiago Bernabeu and his goal record since beggars belief

THE WORST 

Jonathan Woodgate 

Jonathan Woodgate signed for £13m in 2004 from Newcastle while he was still injured and when he arrived he was forced back early for his debut by an impatient president. His thigh complaint worsened and his time out lengthened.

When he eventually made his debut a year after signing he scored an own-goal and was sent off. All the same he was given a standing ovation by Madrid fans who could see from the briefest appearances that he had the quality to be a very good Real Madrid defender.

He had also learned Spanish and was popular in the dressing room. Had it not been for the injuries he would have made a big impact. Unfortunately they hastened his return to England and so he has to make the top ten.

Jonathan Woodgate showed promise in a Real Madrid shirt but his injuries led to his eventual departure

Nicolas Anelka 

Real Madrid bought Nicolas Anelka for £23m from Arsenal. They should have snapped up Thierry Henry instead but it was Arsene Wenger who had that foresight to sign him with the Anelka money. No wonder president Perez wanted to make Wenger his next coach.

Anelka was not bad on the pitch but off it he fell out with Vicente Del Bosque, refusing to train at one point and incurring a month's suspension. Paris Saint-Germain generously gave Madrid back their money for him but it still goes down as a mistake.

Nicolas Anelka's time on the pitch for Real was not too bad but off it there were problems with senior staff

Walter Samuel 

Another expensive error was Walter 'The Wall' Samuel. His nickname came from the fact that nothing got past him. Unfortunately at Madrid he was more of a revolving door with opposing strikers spinning him round en-route to goal.

For someone who had cost over £20m and had been hailed as the saviour of their defence it had to go down as bad business. It is also true that Real Madrid have a habit of making good players look bad, and the Argentine resumed his previously impressive career once he left.

Walter 'The Wall' Samuel is on a list of players that had an impressive career but looked poor for Real

Pedro Leon 

When Jose Mourinho turned up at Real Madrid in 2010, Jorge Valdano was still making the signings. Mourinho would soon change that but not soon enough that Pedro Leon wasn't bought on Valdano's watch.

He was referred to by some as the Spanish David Beckham – to have called him the Spanish David Bentley would have been pushing it. The strolling, sometimes-quite-good, often-anonymous, winger was about as far removed from a Mourinho player as possible and Mourinho kept him as far as possible from his first team.

Some in the Madrid press argued Jose was stifling a great talent – the player's subsequent career has proved Mourinho right.

Pedro Leon was signed by Jorge Valdano and Jose Mourinho was right to be unimpressed by the buy

Fabio Coentrao 

The Special One was perhaps not so on the money when he agreed to the £30m acquisition of Fabio Coentrao in 2011. It's a mystery why someone so shrewd in the transfer market would chose to put so much of his transfer kitty on a player who would have so little game-changing impact.

He chugs up and down the left as a full back or a winger and has had his moments in the white shirt but has spent most of his time on the bench.

He even once took his place on the bench before a game only to be told by giggling team-mates that he hadn't even made the bench. Television cameras showed him making his apologies and shuffling off the stands to watch the game with the other discards.

Fabio Coentrao proved that Mourinho's judgement was not always bang on, although he has had his moments

Flavio Conceicao 

When Real Madrid lost the wonderful talent that was Fernando Redondo they scratched their heads over how to fill the void. Flavio Conceicao joined from Deportivo for €26m and made just 45 appearances in four years although he did set Steve McManaman up for a Champions League final goal.

Flavio Conceicao joined from Deportivo for €26m and made just 45 appearances in four years in Madrid

Royston Drenthe 

Royston Drenthe impressed as an Under 21 international for Holland provoking Real Madrid to sign him for £13m from Feyenoord. But it was too much too soon for the likeable but raw midfielder. A one-on-one miss against Barcelona is seen as his defining moment at the club but even if he had scored in a Clasico it's difficult to see how he would ever have made it at Real.

He subsequently failed to make a lasting impact at Everton, Reading and in the Russian second division.

Royston Drenthe impressed as an Under 21 international for Holland but at Real Madrid he struggled

Antonio Cassano

The enduring memory of Antonio Cassano at Real Madrid is of him being filmed by Spanish television mimicking coach Fabio Capello on the training ground. His impersonation of Real's sergeant major manager was better than anything he ever managed in the white shirt after joining in 2007.

In his autobiography he recounts how he would summon the bell-boy to the team hotel to give him whatever girl had been his guest for the night with one hand and take a plate full of croissants with the other. He had a waistline to match Ferenc Puskas'. Had he scored goals like the 'galloping major' they might have let it slide, but he was soon packed off to Sampdoria on loan.

Antonio Cassano wound up Fabio Capello and had problems with his diet before moving to Sampdoria on loan

Kaka

Real Madrid fans were so desperate for the club to sign Kaka from AC Milan that they used to sing 'Where is Kaka?' when any other new signing was presented. When he eventually did join the club there was still reason for them to sing 'Where is Kaka?'.

He was largely anonymous in a four-year spell at the club in which never came close to giving value for the £60m spent on him. A classic case of Madrid signing someone who has already reached their peak and was on his way down.

His wife Caroline Celico kept everyone amused though taking to social media to complain at how poorly he was being treated by then-coach Manuel Pellegrini.

Real Madrid fans were delighted when they signed Kaka from AC Milan but he proved a poor purchase

Julien Faubert 

'If he's good enough for West Ham, then he's good enough for us' must have been Real Madrid's reasoning when they brought in Julien Faubert from the Hammers on loan in one of the most bizarre deals in the club's history.

It was 2009 and Madrid coach Juande Ramos had failed in an attempt to bring in then-Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson, so Faubert (as shocked as anyone) got the call. Asides from being massively out of his depth the left back cum left winger missed training sessions and yawned on the bench (where he spent most of his loan period).

Back in London he subsequently proved that no only was he not good enough for Real Madrid… he wasn't good enough for West Ham either. 

Julien Faubert holds up the No 18 shirt after signing on loan from West Ham - he proved to be a huge flop

Comments (126)

Share what you think

• Newest
• Oldest
• Best rated
• Worst rated

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

 View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

Enter your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Submit Comment Clear

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now