Liverpool have agreed upon a deal to sell 20-year-old winger Raheem Sterling to Manchester City for £49m, making the English international the third highest sale the Reds have ever made.
We look back on the top five players former Liverpool players that have garnered the highest fees and where their careers have taken them since their sale.
Luis Suarez, £75m
After a stellar 2013-14 season at Anfield in which Suarez scored 31 goals in 33 games and saw him win the Premier League Golden Boot, the European Golden Shoe, PFA Player of the Year, and Premier League Player of the Season, it was no secret that Suarez was going to be difficult to hold onto in the summer transfer window.
After enquiries by many teams over the summer, Suarez was eventually sold to Barcelona for a fee reported to be around £75m which was announced by the Spanish club on July 11, 2014.
Suarez’s career with the Blaugrana got off to a slow start due to his four-month ban from all football-related activities, stemming from the 2014 World Cup incident in which Suarez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini in a group match.
However, since Suarez made his Barcelona debut on October 25 he has been firing on all cylinders, scoring 25 goals and racking up 20 assists in 43 appearances for the club, including the goal that put Barcelona back into the lead and helped secure a 3-1 victory against Juventus in this year’s Champions League Final.
The Uruguayan was part of the Barcelona squad that won the treble this season of La Liga, the Champions League, and the Copa del Rey and was named to the UEFA Champions League Team of the Season for the 2014-15 Champions League campaign.
Fernando Torres, £50m
The player to edge out Sterling by a mere £1 million is Fernando Torres.
The Spaniard was undoubtedly a fan favourite on Merseyside, scoring 81 goals in 142 appearances for the club and becoming the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals.
After scoring just nine goals in 26 appearance for the Reds in the 2010-11 season, Torres was courted by Chelsea who, after a rejected £40m bid and a rejected transfer request, signed the Spanish forward for £50m on January 31, 2011.
Although in his time with Chelsea Torres did win the 2011-12 FA Cup, 2011-12 Champions League, and the 2012-13 Europa League, he was rather quiet, scoring 45 goals in 172 appearances for the Blues and known more for the goals he didn’t score rather than the ones he did.
Torres was sent to A.C. Milan on a two-year loan deal in August 2014 before making that move permanent in January 2015. He scored once in his time at Milan before returning to boyhood club Atlético Madrid two days after his move to Milan was made permanent.
Torres has since scored six times in 26 appearances during his second spell at Atlético.
Internationally, Torres was a part of Spain’s Euro 2012 victory in the Ukraine and Poland where he netted three times provided an assist to win the tournament’s Golden Boot.
Torres also won the 2013 Confederations Cup Golden Shoe, scoring five times and assisting once.
Xabi Alonso, £30m
After arriving at Anfield in the 2004-05 season and playing a key part in the Reds’ miraculous Champions League Final victory in his first season at the club, Alonso’s time at Liverpool was something to behold.
From winning the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the FA Cup, and the FA Community Shield to scoring goals inside his own half, Alonso was one player Liverpool supporters wanted to hang on to.
However, Alonso’s £30m move to Spanish giants Real Madrid was finalised in August 2009, and since then success has continued to follow the Spaniard wherever he has gone.
During his time with Los Blancos, Alonso was a part of Madrid squads that won the 2013-14 Champions League, the 2014 UEFA Super Cup, the 2011-12 La Liga title, the Copa del Rey in both the 2010-11 and 2013-14 seasons, and the Supercopa de España in 2012.
Alonso left Madrid in August 2014, signing a two-year deal with German club FC Bayern Munich, where he won the 2014-15 Bundesliga title.
Internationally, since his transfer away from Merseyside in 2009, Alonso won the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Championship with Spain before retiring from international football in August 2014 following Spain’s group stage exit in the 2014 World Cup.
Javier Mascherano, £18m
Continuing Liverpool’s run of successful Spanish-speaking imports and high-priced exports, the player Liverpool sold for the fourth-highest price is Argentine international Javier Mascherano.
After signing for the Reds in February 2007, Mascherano quickly established himself as a first-team player through his tough play out on the pitch.
Mascherano was instrumental in Liverpool’s 2006-07 Champions League campaign in which they made it to the final before falling to Milan, linking up well with teammate Xabi Alonso in the midfield and providing solid defensive showings week in and week out.
Although Mascherano won no major honours in his time with Liverpool, he was held in very high esteem by the supporters and his play was enough to earn him a transfer to FC Barcelona in August 2010 for a price rumoured to be around £18m.
Since his move to the Camp Nou, Mascherano has been racking up the silverware with the Blaugrana, winning the La Liga title three times (2010-11, 2012-13, 2014-15), the Copa del Rey twice (2011-12, 2014-15), the Supercopa de España twice (2011, 2013), the UEFA Champions League twice (2010-11, 2014-15), the UEFA Super Cup (2011), and the FIFA Club World Cup (2011).
Mascherano was named FC Barcelona’s Player of the Year in the 2013-14 season and named in the 2014-15 Champions League Team of the Season alongside FC Barcelona teammate and former Red Luis Suarez.
Internationally, however, Mascherano has had little success, losing in the final game and claiming the runners-up medals in both the 2014 World Cup and 2015 Copa América with his home nation Argentina. He was named in the Team of the Tournament in the latter.
Andy Carroll, £15m
Our fifth-most expensive sale of a player is a little bit different than the other players on this list. No, it’s not just because he doesn’t speak Spanish…
Andy Carroll signed for Liverpool for £35m on the final day of the 2011 January transfer window. Carroll scored 11 goals in 20 appearances for Newcastle and was seen as a replacement for departing Spanish striker Fernando Torres.
Carroll was part of the Liverpool squad that won the 2012 League Cup against Cardiff City and scored the winning goal in the FA Cup semi-final tie v Everton to send the Reds to the final. Carroll also scored in the final, a 2-1 loss to Chelsea.
In August 2012 Carroll, was loaned to West Ham United where he enjoyed relative success, finding the back of the net seven times in 24 appearances.
The deal was made permanent in June 2013, with Carroll signing a six-year contract with West Ham and becoming the club’s record transfer with a price tag of £15m.
Since then, Carroll has been plagued with injuries, making his first appearance of the Hammers’ 2013-14 campaign on January 12, with his first goal coming on March 15.
In the 2014-15 season, Carroll missed the first 11 games of the season with an ankle ligament injury and after suffering a tear in the medial ligament in the side of his knee on February 11, Carroll was forced to miss the remainder of the 2014-15 season.
Since his move from the Kop to Upton Park was made permanent, Carroll has scored just seven goals in 30 appearances.
Carroll’s lone international competitive goal came as the opener in England’s Euro 2012 group match against Sweden.
Whether or not Sterling will go on to be successful at City and in the rest of his career remains to be seen, however a high price tag does not necessarily mean quality performances.
Hopefully for us Kopites, Sterling’s legacy will follow that of Torres’ and Carroll’s departures and not of Suarez’s, Alonso’s or Mascherano’s.
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