10 Players Who Probably Regret Joining Barcelona
4. Gerard Lopez
Football supporters of a certain age will remember having high expectations for a mercurial talent, who signed his first professional contract at 17 at Valencia, having been ousted by Barcelona B. The original Fabregas football historians might nostalgically refer to him as, the Arsenal playmaker even sought out advice from the former Barcelona returnee prior to his own return in 2011.
In 2000, Lopez was part of an excellent Valencia side, who had lost a Champions League final to the Galacticos (and Ivan Campo) of Real Madrid. They had knocked out Barcelona in the semi-finals, and Lopez had knocked in a hat-trick against the big-spending Lazio in the quarter-finals. In a frantic bid to turn back time, and undo their mistake, his former club stumped up £13.4 million to bring the prodigal son home, labelling him the best midfielder in the world.
In an injury-plagued stint with the Catalans, Lopez appeared 91 times in five years, and scored an average of one goal per annum. Clearly, he never lived up to his billing, as Barcelona quickly lost faith, signing a new buck-toothed golden boy from PSG. Feeling unloved and unwanted, Lopez quietly exited the club through the back door in the summer of 2005 for French club Monaco, where he made 13 appearances in two seasons. Spanish side Recreativo Huelva and second-division Catalonian side Girona FC made up the rest of his CV, before calling time on a disappointing career at the age of 32.
For Fabregas sake, lets just be thankful he got out before things really got messy.