5 world-class players who dramatically declined after leaving Atletico Madrid
Atletico Madrid have been Spanish and European heavyweights for most of the Diego Simeone era – and plenty of big-name players have suffered dramatic declines after leaving the club.
Atleti have been lucky enough to field some of the greatest players of their generation, as well as several cult heroes who never recovered after leaving Madrid.
We’ve identified five players who were considered world-class operators before or during their time at Atletico, but dramatically declined after leaving.
Jackson Martinez
The year is 2015, you’ve loaded up FIFA Ultimate team, managed to scramble together the coins, and put together an absolutely overpowered cheap Portuguese League team.
Front and centre of that was none other than Jackson Martinez, who dominated the Portuguese league in real life just as he did in the game.
He went and ruined it of course. From 67 league goals in 90 appearances for Porto between 2012 and 2015 to just two in 15 in one disastrous season with Atletico Madrid.
Then in 2016, Guangzhou Evergrande paid an inexplicably huge £37.8million for him.
He became a Chinese champion that year, scoring four goals in 10 league games, but he failed to make another appearance at all for the club over the next three years after an ankle injury.
What a waste.
Arda Turan
Largely despised by Atletico fans after leaving for a dismal spell at Barcelona, Turan was nevertheless a crucial player under Simeone when they miraculously won the 2013-14 La Liga title.
His performances in the Spanish capital earned comparisons ranging from “a hipster’s Jesus Christ” to Lou Reed, yet his post-Atletico career has gone a bit Phil Spector, with him receiving a suspended prison sentence for firing a gun in a hospital after breaking the nose of a pop star.
Joao Felix
Perhaps it’s a bit premature to say Felix has dramatically declined given the player is still only 25 and never lit up the Metropolitano in the first place.
But the Portuguese playmaker has already been bundled off by Chelsea after just six months, joining AC Milan on loan, and we must remind you he did cost Atleti £113 million back in 2019.
It’s hard to think of a footballer who has done less to justify such a fee.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Atletico Madrid have signed from the Premier League?
Diego Forlan
A legend for Villarreal and Atletico Madrid, Forlan went on to score 128 La Liga goals in seven seasons, winning the European Golden Shoe twice.
The Uruguayan striker was also instrumental in helping Atletico win the Europa League in 2010 before an ill-advised move to Inter Milan one year later.
After that, Forlan played in Brazil, Japan, India and Hong Kong alongside his native Uruguay, never recapturing the form he showed at the Vicente Calderon.
QUIZ: Can you name Diego Simeone’s 30 most-used players at Atletico Madrid?
Alvaro Morata
He left, he came back, he left, he came back again, he left again…
Morata’s career is often joked about for his seemingly endless cycle of switching between the two major players in Madrid and Juventus.
Memes aside, though, he’s far from a joke himself.
But from the highs of captaining Spain to European Championship glory, the striker has flopped at AC Milan and has just moved to Turkey with Galatasaray.
At 32, it’s hard not to believe Morata is on his downward spiral.