Former Barcelona, Liverpool and Tottenham stars are among the players who controversially left their boyhood club on a free transfer.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is the latest to have denied his maiden club a transfer fee, having decided to join Real Madrid when his Liverpool contract expires in the summer of 2025.
With the Alexander-Arnold news sinking in for Reds fans, we’ve trawled through the archives and picked out eight other players who have left in similar circumstances.
Lionel Messi
The news that Messi had left Barcelona in the summer of 2021 sent shockwaves through the world of football.
Messi left Barca – the only club he had ever played for up until that point – as they were unable to afford a new deal under La Liga’s financial fair play rules.
The Argentinian broke down in tears at a news conference in which he admitted he did not want to leave Barcelona, but had no choice.
Messi had agreed a new deal – on 50% of his old wages – to stay at the club, but Barca could not afford to implement it because they were so far above the wage limit allowed by La Liga.
He moved to PSG, where he spent two unhappy seasons before heading to the MLS and Inter Miami.
Steve McManaman
At an individual level, McManaman never quite hit the same heights after leaving Liverpool, but he still enjoyed plenty of success.
During his four-year stint at Real Madrid, he managed to win six trophies, including two Champions League medals.
However, despite the accolades he won in Spain, McManaman has admitted that it wasn’t quite the same feeling as winning with Liverpool.
“I remember sitting, we’d just won the first Champions League (in 2000) and I’d only been at the club what, 10 months,” McManaman told the We Are Liverpool Podcast.
“The lads were in the dressing room singing Spanish songs and lifting the president up in air, which I did, but I just felt as if I was a bit of a fraud, because they’re all singing these Spanish songs and I just thought to myself ‘this is just weird.’
“I remember thinking ‘I would have loved to have done this with Liverpool’ because I would have been right in the forefront of it all, knowing all the words and really throwing myself into it.
“And I was very much on the periphery of all the celebrations just because I didn’t understand it.”
Sol Campbell
By the end of the 2000-01 season, it was clear Campbell had outgrown Tottenham – he was one of Europe’s best centre-backs while Spurs were floundering in mid-table.
His contract had expired and it was expected that Campbell would join an elite Champions League club abroad.
Around the same time, Arsenal announced a press conference to unveil the signing of goalkeeper Richard Wright. The scenes when Campbell walked out instead were unprecedented.
In an interview with Spurs Monthly magazine, the England defender said that he would never play for Arsenal and the reaction from Tottenham fans was apoplectic.
Campbell himself has said: “[Arsenal vice-chairman] David Dein made me feel protected. He was going to help and promised to be there for me. Come to us, he said, and you will be part of our family. We will protect you.”
‘Judas’ ended up winning two league titles and three FA Cups at Highbury while Spurs fans have never forgiven him.
Gianluigi Donnarumma
After making his breakthrough at AC Milan as a teenager, Donnarumma was quickly dubbed as the ‘next Buffon’.
Living up to that sort of nickname was always going to be near impossible, but the 26-year-old has done well for himself until this point in his career.
The goalkeeper left Milan on a free in 2021 and signed for PSG, where most people would still consider him as one of the best goalkeepers in the world today.
READ NEXT: 5 legendary footballers we can’t believe never commanded a transfer fee: Messi, Raul…
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the Premier League’s 25 most expensive foreign sales ever?
Juninho Pernambucano
Juninho left Vasco de Gama for Lyon back in 2001 back when the French side had never won a Ligue 1 title. The rest is history…
READ: An ode to Juninho Pernambucano, free-kick king & god of chaos
Kingsley Coman
Arguably the biggest mistake on this list, Coman left PSG as an 18-year-old on a free transfer to Juventus after making just four appearances in France, where he became the youngest ever player to play for the club when he was 16.
After just one season at Juventus, Coman joined Bayern Munich on an initial loan and then exploded into life.
Still just 28, Coman has won pretty much everything on offer and scored the winner in the 2020 Champions League final…against PSG.
This made him the first-ever player to score against his former club in a Champions League final. Pain.
Adrien Rabiot
Rabiot has spent the vast majority of his career with PSG and Juventus, while winning 51 caps for France, but it never feels like he gets the respect he deserves.
Having been released by PSG in 2019, Rabiot moved to Italy and spent five successful years at Juve.
But it’s with the national team that Rabiot has come into his own.
Much maligned by fans of Les Blues, the 29-year-old has stepped up during a transitional period for Didier Deschamps’ team and scored two headers in a 3-1 Nations League win over Italy last year.