Every footballer wants a graceful exit from
their club, especially after having served there for years and attaining or nearly attaining
legend status. But unfortunately, not everybody gets that. Some players are pretty much forced
to leave the club in an embarrassing manner. Here are 10 footballers who
left their clubs in disgrace. 1. Joao Cancelo He is the most recent entry on the list
today. At the beginning of the season, Cancelo was the last person anyone would have
expected to leave the club midseason. He has been one of the most important players
for City over the past few seasons, and was even handed the number 7 jersey last
year, which is huge considering he’s a fullback. Cancelo used to be one of the first names
on the Man City team sheet back then, but this season, he started
seeing less and less game time, with a much younger Rico Lewis being
preferred to him in the starting lineup. This went on and on and Cancelo
pretty much became a second team player. Then boom! In the January transfer
window, we hear that Cancelo wants out, and City don’t even try to stop him. Before we
could even say Jack Robinson, Cancelo’s loan deal to Bayern was completed. And there’s an
option to buy, too, so he’s not coming back. It’s definitely not how we expected Joao Cancelo
to leave City. He was pretty much forced out. Anyway, let’s now cross over to
the other side of Manchester. 2. Cristiano Ronaldo We’re all aware of how Ronaldo left United the
second time around. It wasn’t pretty at all. In retrospect, he would have been much
better remaining at Juventus, honestly. It all started when the new manager began to
relegate him to the bench from the 3rd game of the season. At first, it was just the media
being really fixated on it, then Ronaldo himself got very involved in the drama when he walked
out before the end of the game against Spurs. That show of indiscipline led to Ronaldo
being suspended for the next game against Chelsea. We saw a young coach
really disciplining the GOAT, and what made it all worse for CR7 was that the
team seemed to be doing much better without him. At that point, we all just knew that Ronaldo’s days at United were numbered. We just
didn’t know how he was going to leave. Then boom! When clubs went on
their break before the World Cup, it happened! Ronaldo did an interview with Piers
Morgan and said all sorts about Man United; the current manager, the former
manager, the owners… everybody got hit. If you watched that interview, you’d
have known that that was the end. And it didn’t even take long before his
contract was terminated and he left. 3. Lukaku Lukaku became the most expensive footballer
of all time as per combined transfer fees after his return move to Chelsea was
finalized in 2021. But that move which was very highly-anticipated turned out to be
one of the big transfer fails in recent times. The Belgian was in very poor form
for Chelsea, and on top of that, he did not exactly see eye-to-eye with the coach. Oh, and while he was in England,
an interview of him declaring his eternal love for Inter surfaced,
and that didn’t do him much good. So, with all this having happened, the club
really did not care that they had spent crazy amounts on him, they simply counted their
losses and sent him back to Inter where he came from. Not the most honorable
way to leave your boyhood club, is it? 4. Aubameyang Aubameyang was Arsenal’s captain shortly before he
left the club. He had led them to an FA Cup win, won the Premier League Golden Boot with them,
and was generally one of the most important players at the club. So, to leave in
the manner he left was just a shame. It started with a little
punishment for indiscipline, then he was stripped of captaincy, then
he was completely sidelined. It then all ended with his contract being torn up and
him being sent out of the club midseason. 5. Trossard Trossard moving from Brighton to
Arsenal is definitely an upgrade, but the manner in which he left his
former club wasn’t the most honorable. Everybody knew how good the Belgian was
for Brighton, but after the World Cup, he had a falling out with the coach who would then
neither play him nor even talk to him in training. Trossard quickly went from being one
of Brighton’s major sources of goals to being a nobody at the club. And
it must have stung a little extra because he was replaced so quickly, like
he was never important in the first place. Anyway, at least, he got an upgrade
and might win the league this season. That must serve as a consolation for how he left. But hey! Enough of these recent guys.
Let’s throw things back a little, shall we? 6. Figo Figo’s move from Barcelona to Real Madrid in
2000 was heavily controversial and political. Basically, his leaving Barcelona was not
in his hands at all. But the Barca fans did not care one bit. He was a traitor and
the most hated man in Catalonia that year. And all you need to know about that move was
encompassed in the first return to the Camp Nou. He was booed incessantly, called a Judas
and a traitor, but most of all, a pig’s head was thrown at him on the pitch. Those were some
absolutely insane scenes at the Camp Nou that day. 7. Emmanuel Adebayor Remember Adebayor's infamous celebration after scoring for Man City against Arsenal?
He did that because of how he left Arsenal in 2009. He claimed that he was
forced out of the club by Arsene Wenger. In addition to that celebration, he also allegedly slapped Alex Song’s face and tried to
stamp on Fabregas in that same game. That surely was not the best of exits. 8. Balotelli Balotelli didn’t leave Man City on the best of
terms. First of all, the manager, Mancini, had complained about his attitude over and over during
his stay at City, and then, prior to the time he left, he was fined two weeks’ wages, and then took
the club to the Premier League tribunal over that. Balotelli had also fallen out with
a lot of his teammates at this time, and he missed 11 games that season
because of suspensions. He was just a liability at this point, so they
left him to return to Italy midseason. 9. Dmitri Payet Payet’s one true love had always been
Marseille. He had to leave and move to the Premier League when the club was in a
financial mess, but the moment they could afford to bring him back, he decided
he was going to go back by all means. In January 2017, Payet said
he no longer wanted to play for West Ham. And in the next game after
that announcement was made by the coach, his mural at the London Stadium had to be guarded
to prevent it from being vandalized by fans. When Marseille came knocking, West Ham did not
want to let him go. They wanted him to apologize to the fans and continue with the club. But
we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. Later that month, West Ham eventually came
around and Payet moved back to Marseille for a club record fee. His mural was
swiftly removed the following day. 10. Diego Costa You guys remember how Costa left Chelsea,
right? Conte straight up told him he was not a part of his plans, and the crazy
thing was that he didn’t even give him the honor of breaking that to him
face-to-face. He did that over text. He went on to not include the Spanish striker in
the Premier League and Champions League squads, and he was also not allowed to train
with the first team. On top of that, the club was still demanding a
high fee from his suitors which led Costa to say that he was being
treated like a criminal by Chelsea. Anyway, which of these guys will you say left in the worst possible manner?
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