With the Belgium forward set to leave the Bernabeu after a forgettable four seasons, GOAL looks back at Los Blancos' other transfer flops
Real Madrid have never been afraid to splash the cash, and in the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema they have signed some of the greatest players in history. However, there are many more who cost Madrid mega money but never even came close to living up to the hype.
One of the more high-profile of those is Eden Hazard, whom it has been announced will be leaving Santiago Bernabeu this summer having agreed to cancel the final year of his contract in the Spanish capital. The Belgium winger has been beset by injuries since arriving from Chelsea, and leaves Madrid as one of the worst value-for-money buys in the club's history.
But where does Hazard rank among the worst Madrid signings of all-time? GOAL takes a look…
Getty Images16DANILO | From Porto | €31.5m | 2015
Danilo has openly admitted that it is difficult to deal with the amount of scrutiny players are subjected to by the media in Madrid. "An error, no matter how small, goes viral," he lamented. "A mistake becomes very great even if it is small. But, of course, when you do something good, it is also very great."
Surprisingly, Danilo is still playing at the very top level – Madrid offloaded him to Manchester City in 2017, before he joined Juventus two years later where he still plays.
Advertisement15JULIEN FAUBERT | From West Ham | Loan | 2009
Perhaps not the worst transfer in Madrid's history but certainly the strangest. The entire football world was stunned when they took Faubert on loan from West Ham during the January transfer window.
There was an option to buy but it was never taken up, not least because the Frenchman missed one training session as he mistakenly thought he had the day off, and also appeared to nod off during a game against Villarreal. The right-back denied it – “I didn’t fall asleep on the bench; I prefer beds” – but it adequately summed up the rather dream-like absurdity of his short spell in the Spanish capital.
Getty14ROYSTON DRENTHE | From Feyenoord | €14m | 2007
Whether a character like Drenthe ever had the discipline to succeed at the highest level is open to debate. What we do know is that his hopes of making it at Real Madrid effectively ended the moment he was mercilessly booed by the Bernabeu crowd during a game against Deportivo La Coruna.
It left him "suffering from anxiety", then manager Juande Ramos revealed, "As his coach I will do all I can to help him because he has a lot of potential." It was never realised, with the former teen star eventually departing for Hercules, where he made further headlines for going on strike. The Dutch winger retired at the age of 29 to focus on his rap career.
13ANTONIO CASSANO | From Roma | €5m | 2006
The fee may have been small but Cassano was still a colossal waste of money. His return was dismal – just one goal in seven appearances – his attitude dreadful and his diet even worse.
"In Madrid, I had a friend who was a hotel waiter," the Italian later revealed. "His job was to bring me three or four pastries after I had sex. He would bring the pastries up the stairs, I would escort the woman to him and we would make an exchange: he would take the girl and I would take the pastries. Sex and then food, a perfect night."