9 players who did next to nothing at Real Madrid… but shone after leaving

Failing at Real Madrid doesn't make you a bad footballer, and there are plenty of footballers who didn't succeed at the Santiago Bernabeu and did great things elsewhere.

Take a look at Europe's top leagues in any given season and you'll see countless players with the Spanish club on their CV, and many of them do enough to make you wonder why things didn't click.

From academy players who failed to show up to signings who failed to impress and were quickly transferred, Real Madrid's former contingent contains plenty of stars .

Here we look at nine players who excelled after leaving Los Blancos.

Samuel Eto'o

Eto'o could top the 'those who got away' list, having won hat-tricks with two separate Champions League winners despite only playing in a handful matches in a Real Madrid shirt.

In fairness, with Raul and Fernando Morientes ahead of him in the queue, and Ronaldo joining a few years later, his path to first-team football wasn't entirely clear.

The Cameroonian left for Mallorca aged 19, having failed in any of his seven games for Los Blancos, but went on to play an important role in Barcelona's run for the Champions League titles 2006 and 2009 before helping Jose Mourinho's Inter won the same competition in 2010.

Wesley Sneijder

Another member of Inter's 2010 squad, Sneijder has done enough in that season at Milan to leave us wondering why Real Madrid were so willing to let him go.

The Dutch midfielder joined in the same window as compatriot Arjen Robben and played a similar number of games, but struggled to make his long-term case even before Kaka's arrival sealed his output.

Not only did he thrive in that first season in Italy, but he was one of the stars of the 2010 World Cup, taking the Netherlands to the final and coming very close to the humility of his former club mates as the Oranje took on Spain in extra time.

Fabinho

Fabinho has been a big name across Europe in recent years, both with Monaco and Liverpool, but Real Madrid didn't seem to see enough of the Brazilian to sign him permanently after a loan spell .

The Brazilian was loaned to the Castilla side in 2012, and Jose Mourinho made his first-team debut for him. However, once Mourinho left Madrid to return to Chelsea, he went on loan from Rio Ave to Monaco.

That was when things really started to move for Fabinho, who transformed from a promising right-back into a world-class defensive midfielder and played a central role in the triumph of Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League, the victory of the 2020 Premier League title and the 2022 League. and the FA Cup double.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

Huntelaar wasn't bad in a Real Madrid shirt, but he never really had a chance, with Manuel Pellegrini dispatching the Dutchman less than a year after arriving from the club. 'Ajax.

The striker netted eight times in 20 games before being ruled out for Karim Benzema, and he's flourished ever since.

His 126 goals for Schalke, including 48 in a single season, and a superb goal against his former employers in 2014, admittedly in a 6-1 loss.

But he even got his revenge in 2018-19 when he was part of Erik ten Hag's Ajax side that knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League.

Juan Mata

Mata wasn't even sniffed at in Madrid, playing for the Spanish team's second string but leaving for Valencia without getting a single senior minute.

Santi Solari reportedly wanted to bring the midfielder back to Madrid in 2018, which tells you what you need to know about his achievements in the decade-plus since leaving in 2007.

After being part of an enviable Valencia attack with David Villa and David Silva, he won the Champions League with Chelsea and played for Manchester United for eight years before his contract ran out in the summer 2022.

Ze Roberto

Another talented player on the left side, Ze Roberto almost embarrassed the club which let him return to Brazil after only a few months.

"I knew that if I wanted to cement a starting place in Madrid, I had to stay for a few years. So, with the [1998] World Cup in mind, I left Real and joined Flamengo. I believe that if I had stayed, I would have been a success, no matter how fierce the competition was,” the Brazilian later said.

Based on its success elsewhere, it's hard to argue. He was part of the Bayer Leverkusen side that faced Real Madrid in the 2002 Champions League final, before winning four Bundesliga titles with a dominant Bayern Munich side and earning more than 80 caps for the Brazil.

Walter Samuel

Argentina centre-back Samuel joined for big money after impressing...