World Cup Watch: The Galacticos

Posted Monday, May 10, 2010 by The Independent

And the mega-bucks players who won't be going...
It doesn't matter how much you're worth - if your country doesn't qualify, your not going. Here are a few of the world's most expensive stars who'll be sunning themselves on the beach rather than battling it out in South Africa:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Barcelona paid in the region of £40m plus Samuel Eto'o (who's worth at least £20m) to bring the Inter Milan striker to the Nou Camp. But Sweden finished third in their qualifying group behind Portugal and great rivals Denmark which means the aloof centre-forward won't be going.

Andriy Shevchenko
Chelsea shelled out £30m for the Ukrainian in 2006, and although he was a complete flop in English football, it still makes him one of the most expensive players of all time. For Ukraine he's prolific, but they were knocked out by Greece in a play-off.

Dimitar Berbatov
The moody Bulgarian is Manchester United's record signing (although he doesn't look like it most of the time). But the £30m-plus man won't be in South Africa as Bulgaria finished behind Italy and the Republic of Ireland in their qualification group.

Luka Modric
Tottenham's £16.5m signing will get a break this summer after Croatia finished third in the same group as England.

Emmanuel Adebayor
Big spending Manchester City forked out £25m last summer for the Togo striker. His country didn't qualify and even if they had, he retired from international football following the shooting incident at the Africa Cup of Nations.

« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910Next »