Atlético & Barcelona’s Interesting Transfer Relationship Part 1

Since taking charge of the club on December 23, 2011, Diego Simeone has transformed Atlético Madrid from a midtable side to a team that has proven capable of winning silverware on the domestic stage and competing with Europe’s biggest clubs for glory. Under the Argentinian manager, the Rojiblancos have won two league titles, as many, as they had won in the previous 37 years, reached two Champions League Finals, and won the 2012/13 Copa del Rey, their first trophy since suffering relegation in 1999/00, before winning their first La Liga title in 18 years and reaching their first Champions League Final in 40 years in the 2013/14 season.

The summer of 2013 had seen Atlético sign Belgian defender Toby Alderweireld from Ajax, French midfielder Joshua Guilavogui from Saint-Ètienne, Brazilian striker Léo Baptistão from Rayo Vallecano, Spanish goalkeepers Roberto and Daniel Aranzubia from Benfica and Deportivo de la Coruña, respectively, and Argentine defender Martín Demichelis on a free transfer from Málaga, only for Demichelis to depart for Manchester City less than two months later and play a crucial role in defence in the final months of the season as the Sky Blues claimed a second Premier League title in three years under new manager Manuel Pellegrini, but no signing would make a bigger impact than David Villa.

When Villa joined Atlético on July 8, 2013, he became the first of four players to swap the Blaugranas for the Rojiblancos, or vice versa, under Diego Simeone’s reign at the club. Over the next two weeks on Bet Central, we’ll be taking a look at each of the four players who have gone from Barcelona to Atlético or Atlético to Barcelona in the past 10 years.

David Villa

David Villa arrived from Camp Nou with a trophy cabinet featuring two Copa del Rey titles with Zaragoza and Valencia, two league titles, a Champions League and a Copa del Rey with Barcelona, as well as a European Championship and World Cup with Spain, in addition to growing concerns over the 31-year-old striker’s fitness. After an excellent debut season that would see him score 23 goals and 12 assists to lead Barça to a third straight league title under Pep Guardiola as well as score the third and final goal in their 3-1 victory over Manchester United in the Champions League Final, Villa broke his shinbone in a Club World Cup match against Al-Sadd on December 15, 2011 – eight days before Simeone was hired as Atleti manager – and missed the second half of the campaign, before returning to action with a goal in the season opener against Real Sociedad and scoring 16 goals and 9 assists in 43 appearances in the 2012/13 season. Despite coming off the bench for a large portion of those matches and undergoing kidney stone surgery in February, Villa proved crucial for Tito Vilanova’s side as they reclaimed the La Liga title from their eternal rivals, finishing 15 points above José Mourinho’s Real Madrid with an astonishing 100 points. However, he found himself surplus to requirements under new manager Tata Martino following the arrival of Brazilian wonderkid Neymar from Santos and was allowed to leave for a cut-rate fee of €5.1 million.

Villa needed just 12 minutes to open his account against his former side in the Supercopa de España, only for Neymar to find the back of the net within seven minutes of coming on for Pedro Rodríguez – the two sides drew 0-0 at the Camp Nou the following match as Barcelona won on away goals. He kicked off September with a goal and an assist in a 2-1 win against Real Sociedad and a goal in a 4-2 win against Almería, and by November 23, he had racked up 8 goals and 4 assists for Atleti, who suddenly found themselves in foreign territory – challenging Real Madrid and Barcelona for the league title. Whilst Villa was showing he still had plenty of gas left in the tank at 31, a 24-year-old Brazil-born striker by the name of Diego Costa was emerging as one of La Liga’s deadliest forwards with 36 goals and 4 assists in all competitions, forming a dynamic duo in attack with the veteran Spaniard, who finished with 15 goals and 5 assists and played an invaluable role as Atleti advanced to the Champions League Final where they would lose 4-1 to Real Madrid in Lisbon. Whilst Barcelona finished trophyless for the first time since 2007/08, Atleti would eliminate Milan, Barcelona, and Chelsea to reach their first European final in four decades, and their league campaign came to a climax with a trip to Camp Nou on the final day of the season to face FC Barcelona, who found themselves three points behind Diego Simeone’s side and in need of a victory in order to maintain their domestic throne.

Having lost 2-0 to Levante and drawn 1-1 to Málaga in the previous two fixtures, Atleti suffered two early blows with Diego Costa and Arda Turan being forced off within the first 23 minutes due to injury, and it went from bad to worse as Alexis Sánchez broke the deadlock after 33 minutes. Atleti were in need of a miracle, and they got it in the 49th minute as Gabi served up a corner for Diego Godín to head home, with Atleti holding on for a 1-1 draw to seal their first league title in 18 years, with Villa playing the full 90 minutes in attack alongside a front five of Adrián – who came off in the 72nd minute for José Sosa – Raúl García, Tiago, Koke and Gabi and a back five of Thibaut Courtois, Juanfran, Diego Godín, João Miranda and Filipe Luís. In doing so, they became the first team outside of Real Madrid and Barcelona to win a La Liga title since Rafa Benítez’s Valencia ten years prior.

The following summer would see Courtois return to Chelsea after his loan spell expired, whilst Diego Costa and Filipe Luís followed him to Stamford Bridge and proceeded to win the Premier League title under new manager José Mourinho. David Villa, meanwhile, chose to ride off into the sunset, becoming the first player to join the MLS expansion club New York City FC. After a brief loan spell at Melbourne City, Villa emerged as a captain and a talisman for an NYCFC side featuring Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Andoni Iraola and Angeliño, scoring 77 goals and 9 assists in four seasons in the Big Apple, before spending a year in Vissel Kobe and hanging up his boots in 2020 as Spain’s all-time leading scorer with 59 goals as well as the 13th-leading scorer in La Liga history with 185 goals. Villa scored just 15 goals in his solitary year in the Spanish capital, less than his totals with Valencia (129), Barcelona (48), Zaragoza (38) and only slightly better than his 13 goals apiece at Sporting Gijón and Vissel Kobe, but he will nevertheless be remembered fondly amongst the Colchonero fanbase for his role in an unforgettable campaign.

Arda Turan

After a summer that saw them lose four starters in Costa, Villa, Luís and Courtois, Atleti suffered a regression in form in 2014/15, finishing third in the league – 14 points behind Real Madrid and 16 behind treble winners Barcelona – as well as losing to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey quarterfinals and Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals. Whilst Antoine Griezmann stole the show with 25 goals in all competitions after arriving from Real Sociedad in the prior summer, one player who emerged as an increasingly important performer in attack was Arda Turan. Following a decade at Galatasaray, Turan joined Atleti in 2011 and scored 22 goals and 32 assists in 178 appearances, blending a supreme technical ability, lightning-quick dribbling and a tenacious aggression to win the ball back in a wide midfielder role in Diego Simeone’s 4-4-2. The 2014/15 season would see Arda receive a yellow card after throwing his boot at an assistant referee after he was denied a free-kick for an alleged foul by Ivan Rakitić in the midst of a Copa del Rey defeat to Barcelona – three months later, Turan was sent off in the 76th minute for a foul on Sergio Ramos, with Chicharito coming off the bench and scoring an 88th-minute winner at the Bernabéu to eliminate the 10-man Rojiblancos. These incidents did not stop Barcelona from signing Turan to a five-year contract in 2015, paying €34 million plus €7 million in bonuses for the 28-year-old Turkish international. Arda and fellow summer arrival Aleix Vidal were unable to play until January due to Barcelona’s transfer ban, with Arda scoring 2 goals and 4 assists in 25 appearances, the majority of which came off the bench, before jetting off for the 2016 Euros. Turkey lost their first two matches to Croatia and Spain to ensure a group stage elimination, with Arda returning to the Camp Nou and starting the campaign off on the right spot with a goal and an assist in the league opener against Betis and picking up an assist in the following match, a 1-0 win vs. Athletic Club. With Neymar missing the start of the season whilst away with Brazil in the Olympics, Turan was able to take advantage of his absence and string together a run of starts, before suffering an adductor injury in February and dropping to the bench, making just two league appearances in the final three months of the campaign as Barcelona lost the league title to Real Madrid and fell at the quarterfinals stage in the Champions League once more, prompting Luis Enrique to step down as manager with Ernesto Valverde replacing him at the helm. Unable to bench Neymar, Lionel Messi or Luis Suárez in the front three, unable to make the transition from a wide midfielder in a counter-attacking 4-4-2 set-up to an interior midfielder in a possession-based 4-3-3, Arda never managed to justify his lofty price tag and found himself frozen out of the first team following the events of June 5, 2017. After drawing 0-0 in a friendly match against Macedonia, Arda was boarding the plane back to Turkey when he found journalist Bilal Meşe, who had written a derogatory article about his attitude and performances at Euro 2016, before allegedly strangling Mese and calling him a “son of a bitch,” forcing teammates to restrain him. Arda was kicked out of the squad and declared that he felt no remorse and would no longer be playing for Turkey, only for him to reverse his international retirement in August after Mircea Lucescu replaced Fatih Terim as national team manager. He would return to the national team in September, coming off the bench in a 2-0 defeat, starting and wearing the captain’s armband in a 1-0 win vs. Croatia, before starting in a 3-0 loss to Iceland in a World Cup qualifier. This would be the 100th and final cap for Turan, who would depart Barcelona three months later after failing to make a single appearance under Valverde, joining İstanbul Başakşehir on a 2.5-year loan – the remainder of his contract length at Barcelona. Despite scoring in his first match with the club – a 3-0 win vs. Bursaspor – Turan would score just 1 goal and 1 assist in his next 10 matches – both coming in a 3-1 win vs. Kayserispor – before landing himself in even more controversy. On May 4, 2018, Arda was sent off in a 1-1 draw to Sivasspor for pushing an assistant referee after disagreeing with a ruling. He received a 16-match ban from the Turkish Federation’s disciplinary board, the longest punishment ever issued to a player in the country, although it was later reduced to 10. Whilst he was finishing up his suspension, Arda landed in more hot water in October when he allegedly made suggestive remarks to Ozlem Ada at an Istanbul nightclub before starting an altercation with her husband – pop star Berkay Sahin – with Sahin later going to the hospital to have surgery on a broken nose. He then showed up to the hospital with a gun, begging for forgiveness, asking to be shot if the singer believed the harassment allegations were true, and stating that he did not know Ms Sahin was his wife, with the two men arguing and Turan later firing his weapon into the ground. Turan would fail to score in each of his next 28 matches with Başakşehir before having his contract terminated in January 2020 and returning to boyhood club Galatasaray, where he would enjoy a fairly successful campaign that would see him score 4 goals and 2 assists in 34 matches, losing the league title to Besiktas on the final day of the season, before suffering an injury-plagued 2021/22 season as Gala finished 13th and hanging up his boots in September at the age of 35.

Zach Lowy

Zach Lowy is the co-creator of Breaking The Lines (@BTLVid) and a freelance soccer journalist for various websites such as BET Central, Soccer Laduma and Hudl Analysis. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is the host of the Cortalinhas podcast, a weekly podcast that discusses Portuguese football. Zach has accumulated a wealth of experience and knowledge in football and has written about various subjects for BET Central ranging from Barcelona's financial difficulties to the 'lost generation' of South Africa's Amajita class of 2009.