10 Players Who Probably Regret Joining Real Madrid
4. Arjen Robben
Unappreciated and undervalued in Madrid, Robben must have taken great solace in engineering the 5-1 demolition job of Spain this summer. Staking a claim as probably the greatest winger in world football at the moment, there was a time when the hierarchy at Real Madrid dismissed him as nothing more than a serial diver, far more likely to challenge Tom Daley in the Olympics than to lead Madrid to Champions League glory. Following Robbens solo effort in the Champions League final of 2013, that is simply just a half-truth.
Arriving in a £24 million transfer from Chelsea in 2007, he spent large parts of his debut season in the infirmary, before gaining the respect of manager Manuel Pellegrini. Unswayed by pressure from above, the former Villareal boss kept Robben as a permanent fixture in his side, despite the continuous musings from the boardroom.
Predictably, the penetrative Dutchman was whisked out of the club, as part of the Dutch exodus in the summer of 2009. Of course, there were never going to be any shortage of suitors, with Bayern Munich providing him with a home.
Like his Dutch compatriot Sneijder, Robben beat Madrid to the punch in scooping a Champions League medal, notching the winner in the 2013 final. He has displayed the best football of his career in Germany, amassing 89 goals in 166 games, compared to his paltry record of 13 in 65 for Los Blancos.
''Leaving Madrid over Bayern was the best decision of my life. Robben, 2014.