10 dumbest signings of the summer

Vitolo – Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid are currently under a transfer ban for violating a section of FIFA’s regulations for signing youth internationals, known as Article 19. The club appealed the decision in the summer, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) upheld the decision in June, thereby not allowing Atletico so register new players until January of 2018.

That does not mean that the club can’t make any signings, however. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid have faced similar sanctions in the recent past, and they both were able to circumvent the rules using the same tactic that Atletico have done so this summer. A club can technically sign a new player if they loan him out until the ban is over. That doesn’t mean it’s smart to do so.

In July, Atleti signed Vitolo, a winger from Sevilla, for a reported fee of €37.5 million. That move was not very popular in Sevilla, and they plan to take legal action against Atletico and Vitolo for their troubles. The player had apparently signed a new contract with Sevilla just two days before he moved to Madrid, and the club did not appreciate the intervention.

This move is confusing for a few reasons. The obvious one is that Atletico are in the middle of a transfer ban, and quite foolishly got themselves into another legal battle by snatching up a player Sevilla seemingly already signed. That ultimately could lead to more sanctions or a hefty fee payed to a rival club.

Another reason for this inclusion is the fact that Vitolo isn’t a must-have player. He will turn 28 in November of this year, and has never topped six league goals or assists in a single season for Sevilla. Is a player of that caliber worth going into another court battle? No, it’s not.