As Manchester City sign Kyle Walker from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £50 million, we take a look at the top 5 right-backs in the world from the past decade for who could have easily cost £50 million in today’s market:
1. Maicon to Inter (£4.8 million)
Maicon moved to Inter in 2006 from Monaco for just £4.8 million and ended up spending six seasons with the Italian outfit. During his time at the club, the Brazilian played some of his best football and was easily one of the better right-backs of that time.
The Bazilian eventually was sold off to Man City in 2012 but by that time he had four Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia and one UCL title to his name.
2. Hector Bellerin to Arsenal(Academy transfer)
Bellerin came to Arsenal as a 16-year-old boy from the La Masia academy. And since then he has lived up to that Barcelona tag and is currently one of the best right-backs in the world. So much so that Barcelona are trying desperately to bring him back to Camp Nou.
While Barcelona might today be willing to pay a bag full of money for Bellerin but back in 2011, Wenger bought him for the price of nothing.
3. Antonio Valencia to Man Utd(£16 million)
Valencia was signed by Manchester United as a right winger and so technically he should not be on this list. But he is currently one of the best right-back in England, if not the world.
After spending a number of seasons as a winger, the Ecuadorian has perfectly adapted himself as per the needs of his manager and his team. A total team player, Antonio Valencia currently is United’s first choice right-back and is perhaps the undisputed king to that throne.
Read: Liverpool are going after this Saints player, again.
4. Dani Alves to Barcelona( £30 million)
It is probably because of this man that Guardiola was forced to pay £50 million for Spurs. And he is also one of the reasons why we are writing this piece.
Alves joined Barcelona in 2008 from Sevilla for a fee of £30 million(£7 million in add ons) and went on to spend eight glorious seasons with the Catalan giants. In these eight seasons, the Brazilian managed to win every possible silverware that Barcelona became eligible for. And eventually, he left the club to join Juventus in 2016 after winning 23 trophies.
5. Dani Carvajal to Real Madrid( €6.5 million)
Carvajal was basically a Real Madrid youth team product who was sold off the Bayer Leverkusen in 2012 for €5 million. But thankfully the Madrid management knew what the Spaniard was capable of and decided to include a buy-back clause in the contract.
And at the end of his very first season in Germany, Carvajal was voted the third best right-back in the country. This caught Real Madrid’s eye and the club immediately brought him back to the Bernabeu by triggering the buy-back clause. And ever since then the 25-year-old has remained at Real racking up over 100 appearances for the club.
