Producer: Siddarth Sriram
Figo sparked huge outrage in 2000 when he swapped the Camp Nou for the Santiago Bernabeu. The player was absolutely hammered by Barca fans on his first game back at the Camp Nou, with one supporter even famously throwing a pig’s head at the Portuguese winger.
Gonzalo Higuain was considered a king at Napoli and in the 2015-16 season, he broke a record with Napoli as the striker with the most goals in a Serie A season. In that summer, Juventus paid his release clause and the Argentinian became a Juventus player. Napoli fans can forgive a lot of things but never that you play for Juventus.
When Sol Campbell moved to Arsenal from fierce north London rivals Spurs in 2001, the England international instantly became a hated figure at White Hart Lane, and still largely is until this day. With his success with the Gunners not helping Spurs fans get over the move, one can’t think of many players that are hated more by Lilywhites fans than the Arsenal legend.
Despite securing a move back to Dortmund in 2016 after a struggling time in Bavaria, Gotze was absolutely hated by the Dortmund faithful for his move to Bayern in 2013, with the player joining the club just weeks after they beat Dortmund in the Champions League final.
As if signing Gotze wasn’t already enough, Bayern dealt a double whammy to Dortmund when they signing star striker Robert Lewandowski from them as well in 2014, a signing that completed crushed Dortmund and helped Bayern become a dominant force in Germany once again.
When Rooney signed for Man United from Everton in 2004, the transfer sent Toffees fans into outrage. Everton supporters were then made to fume even more later in Rooney’s career when he scored against the Toffees, kissing the United badge in the process in front of the Goodison Park faithful.
Although he is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, the Brazilian superstar managed to play for all of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan during his time as a player, something that would’ve earned him a few haters at every club despite his heroics.
The Dutchman Van Persie went from being a young promise to being a star, captain and benchmark in his eight years at the Gunners. Knowing that he had only one year left on his contract with Arsenal, he put pressure on the club to accept an offer from Manchester United. His intention was to win the Premier League, something that he would achieve in his first season with the Red Devils.
When Pirlo announced he would be moving from AC Milan to fierce Italian rivals Juventus in 2011, fans of the Rossoneri were in uproar at the midfielder’s decision. Despite winning two Champions Leagues and two Serie A titles with Milan, Pirlo was quickly shunned by their supporters and is often considered as a traitor by a fair few of their fans to this day.
Despite being a part of their ‘Invincibles’ in the 2003/04 season, Cole decided to pack up his bags and swap life with the Gunners in favour of a move to west London with rivals Chelsea, for clearly financial reasons, n exchange for William Gallas and 7 million euros, a move that surely still has a fair few Gunners fans angry today.