Gianluca Vialli, Sampdoria to Juventus£12,500,000
Probably more familiar to British readers during his playing and managing days at Chelsea, but Gianluca Vialli was already 32 by the time he moved to Stamford Bridge. 85 goals in 223 league games helped Sampdoria win the 1990/91 Serie A title, still their only league title to this day. Vialli was league top scorer that season with 19 Serie A goals, in a Sampdoria side that included Roberto Mancini and Attilio Lombardo (you know your 90s football if you remember which English side he later played for). That Sampdoria side continued to surprise, by making the European Cup final the following year, losing out to Johan Cruyff's Barcelona. Vialli had scored 6 goals in that 1992 European Cup campaign, second to Jean-Pierre Papin, who netted 7 for Marseille. The summer of 1992 saw Papin head to Milan for a world-record £10m, only to be broken by Juventus' £12m capture of Vialli. By 1992, Juventus had not won Serie A since 1986. Vialli joined a side containing Roberto Baggio, Paulo Di Canio, and Pierluigi Casiraghi. Juventus, captained by Vialli, went on to win the 94/95 scudetto, and the European Cup the following year. Following the European Cup triumph, Vialli made his move to England in 1996.
1992 Gianluigi Lentini, Torino to Milan£13,000,000
Now here is probably the most recent world's most expensive player that most football fans have never heard of. Bank the name Gianluigi Lentini for any future appearances on 'Pointless'. Lentini's transfer is also interesting in that he is, to date, the last Italian player to be the world's most expensive player, and the seventh all-time (Sormani 63, Anastasi 68, Savoldi 75, Rossi 76, Baggio 90, Vialli 92, and Lentini 92), since WW2 no other country has produced as many. This is all well and good, but why have we never heard of Gianluigi Lentini? After impressing at his first club Torino, Lentini was 23 when he moved to Milan, full of pace and promise. His first season at AC went well, his seven Serie A goals helped them to the 92/93 title as well as the final of the Champions League (where they were beaten by Marseille). But in the summer of 1993, Lentini was involved in a serious car accident whilst driving home from a pre-season tournament in Genoa. Lentini suffered a fractured skull and was in a light coma for two days. He returned to action at the end of the 93/94 season, but his ability was never the same. Milan teammate Marcel Desailly said of Lentini "you could see the skills, how he was before the accident and after the accident, the balance was completely different." Lentini never fully captured his form at the top level again, and moved to Atalanta in 1996 and a string of lower league Italian teams until his retirement as late as 2011. A sad story, who knows what Lentini would have achieved? Perhaps the outcome of the 1994 World Cup would have been different if Italy had had their world-record breaking striker at the peak of his powers alongside one Roberto Baggio.
1996
Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima, PSV Eindhoven to Barcelona£13,200,000
From a relatively unknown name to one of the most recognisable players in the history of the game. It surprisingly took until 1996 for a Brazilian player to be the world's most expensive player, and none more fitting than the phenomenon that was Ronaldo. Ronaldo began his career with Cruzeiro, and aged 17 was part of the Brazil squad that won the aforementioned 1994 World Cup, though he did not play a single minute in the tournament. Following the World Cup, Ronaldo chose to sign for PSV of the Dutch league. Teenage Ronaldo absolutely tore up the Eridivisie, finishing the 94/95 season as league top-scorer with 30 goals. His second season was curtailed by a knee injury, that would hamper his career further down the line, but Ronaldo still managed 12 goals in 13 appearances that season. In two seasons at PSV, he scored 54 goals in 58 games in all competitions. Ronaldo was the hottest property on the planet, and Barcelona were first in line to capture his signature in 1996 for a world record fee. Ronaldo spent just one season at the Camp Nou, and just as he did in the Eridivisie, he tore La Liga up too. 47 goals in 49 games in all competitions helped Barcelona, then managed by our very own Bobby Robson, win the Cup Winners Cup, Copa del Rey, and Supercopa de Espana. Not only was he scoring goals for fun, it was the manner in which he was scoring that was incredible, with most of his goals coming at the end of mazy runs that took on entire defences before rounding the keeper to slot into an empty net. One such goal against Compostela led Spanish newspaper AS to headline the next day's story 'Pele Returns'. The end of his season at Barcelona saw Ronaldo break the world transfer record again, but we will cover that in my next post, join me why don't you? In the meantime, enjoy Ronaldo at the peak of his physical powers at Barcelona...
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