Saviola 26th player to move between Spanish twin giants

By Duncan Shaw Jul 14, 2007, 10:25 GMT

Madrid - Only 26 players in Spanish football history have been brave enough - or maybe insensitive enough - to move from Barcelona to Real Madrid or vice versa.

The twin giants have always been interested in snatching players from each other, but most footballers have preferred to avoid the controversy, tension and pressure of moving between the big two.

Five year ago, for example, Rivaldo was sent packing by Barca and was approached by Real - but preferred to avoid all the hassle and instead joined AC Milan.

The latest player to switch from one to the other is Javier Saviola.

In June, 'The Rabbit' - as he is known for his size and speed - finished his contract at Barcelona and left in a bad mood, annoyed at Barca's 'unacceptable' offer of a new deal which would have almost halved his salary.

Real sensed a window of opportunity and quickly moved in, offering him a lucrative four-year deal.

On Friday, 'Los Blancos' smugly presented Saviola to the media.

When asked whether he felt he had 'betrayed' Barca, the 25 year-old striker said that 'I have not killed anyone or lied to anyone...It's a great opportunity in my career, and I didn't need to think for a second about taking it.'

Maybe Saviola doesn't yet realize how much of a hate figure his Madrid move has already made him in Catalonia.

He will certainly learn this on 23 December when he returns to the Camp Nou, in a white shirt.

Luis Figo - the most hated player ever for Barca fans following his cloak-and-dagger switch to Real in 2000 - said that the hostile reception he was given in the Camp Nou the following season was the most unpleasant experience in his career.

The jeering and booing that Figo received in the Camp Nou clearly affected his Real performances there. Indeed, he was so worried about having to return there again that he deliberately earned another yellow card, and thus a one-match suspension, in order to miss the first leg of the Barca-Real Champions League semi-finals in April 2002.

Bernd Schuster, now coach of Real, was given a similarly unpleasant reception by the Barca fans after jumping ship to Real in 1988. The same thing happened to Michael Laudrup after being tempted away from the Camp Nou by the whites in 1994.

Other players who have switched from Barca to Real over the years include 1930s idol Pepe Samitier, Luis Milla, Albert Celades and - after a five-year interlude at Inter - Ronaldo.

The most controversial case involved Alfredo Di Stefano, signed by Barca in 1953 from River Plate. Real, however, dealt directly with Millionarios of Bogota, for whom Di Stefano was playing in the 'pirate' Colombian league of the time.

The Spanish federation, dominated by Francoist officials, allegedly pressured Barca into selling their Di Stefano rights to Real, with various anonymous threatening phone calls.

Barca gave in to the pressure and Real proceeded to build a superlative side around the mercurial Argentine - a side which would put Barca in the shade in Spain and dominate Europe.

Today Di Stefano is Real's 'President of Honour', and was present on Friday at the presentation of compatriot Saviola.

Barca have tried just as hard as Real to snatch players away from their historic rivals. This was why Johan Cruyff signed Gheorge Hagi and Robert Prosinecki in the 1990s - though neither did well at the Camp Nou.

And that was why Joan Gaspart signed former Real striker Alfonso Perez from Betis in 2000, just three weeks after the Figo 'defection'.

Luis Enrique became a hate figure for the 'madridista' fans after jumping ship to Barca in 1996, and seemed to thrive on the boos he received when wearing returning to the Estadio Bernabeu in the blue-and-red stripes.

It was largely because of his Real Madrid past that Barca president Joan Laporta insisted, in July 2004, on signing Samuel Eto'o, who had been loaned out by Real to Mallorca.

The Cameroon hitman, to the chagrin of Real, has been a fundamental factor in Barca's revival since 2004.

Now Real are hoping to hit back with 'Rabbit' Saviola.