12 Biggest Crowds for Player Presentations in Football History

The bond between footballers and fans is a delicate relationship. Some hardworking players spend years dutifully toiling away without even earning their own chant, while cult heroes can be born after one set of 90 minutes. Only a select few have been able to enrapture the masses before making their debut.

Dedicated presentations for new signings are rarely spotted in the Premier League but have been commonplace across Europe for decades. These grand unveilings are often held in club stadiums, providing fans with an opportunity to pay for the privilege of seeing their new signing nervously juggle a ball. Transfers that illicit an electric current of excitement in a fanbase have drawn larger crowds than the average attendance for league games.

The fees for these new arrivals don’t necessarily correspond to the audience they can command. Free transfers have attracted more supporters than world-record deals in the past. Here’s a closer look at the largest crowds ever assembled for the sole purpose of gawking at a new signing.

12

Carlos Tevez – 40,000

Boca Juniors

The effect Carlos Tevez can have on an Argentine crowd should never be underestimated. The tireless terrier at the tip of Boca Juniors’ attack endeared himself to the Buenos Aires faithful thanks to his work rate, prolific record and humble beginnings. Tevez rose out of the Fuerte Apache neighbourhood in Argentina’s capital, which was famed for bloody shootouts and uninhabitable housing conditions.

“He embodies a social dream,” sports psychologist Marcelo Roffe, who worked with Tevez in the national team, explained, “the kid from the tough background who makes it.” A decade after leaving Boca to conquer Europe with the likes of Manchester United and Juventus, Tevez returned to a sold-out Bombonera stadium. The 40,000 in attendance would surely have paid a fee to get a glimpse of their returning hero, but Tevez made sure the tickets were free so long as fans donated to a local food bank.

11

Fernando Torres – 45,000

Atletico Madrid

Fernando Torres was one of 25,000 fans in a sparse Vicente Calderon when he attended his first Atletico Madrid match on a cold day in January 1995. Almost 20 years later, 45,000 fans squashed into the same stadium just to see Torres in an Atletico kit once again.

The boyhood fan was the only kid in his class who didn’t support Real Madrid, defiantly wearing his red and white stripes at school even after swallowing the familiar taste of defeat over the weekend. Torres came through Atletico’s academy and lived his dream, racking up 91 goals across six years in the first team before reluctantly moving to Liverpool. After six years, two European Championships and one World Cup, Torres was “back home”, to use his own words.

10

Eden Hazard – 50,000

Real Madrid

Real Madrid make a spectacle of almost every signing. While players with a lower profile invariably command smaller crowds, attendance figures don’t always offer an accurate portrayal of how those transfers will pan out. Toni Kroos infamously attracted just 8,000 fans when he was presented in 2014 before becoming one of the club’s greatest players of all time. Eden Hazard was nowhere near making that list, but inspired a crowd of 50,000 for his unveiling in 2019.

The club’s most expensive arrival at the time understandably sparked excitement. Fresh from delivering the best individual season of his Chelsea career, boasting 38 goals and assists in 40 starts, no one could imagine that Hazard would only score seven times during his four years in Madrid.

9

Kaka – 55,000

Real Madrid

Kaka was allowed to enjoy the acclaim for just the first week of July in 2009. Seven days after marking his world-record transfer to Real Madrid in front of an unrivalled crowd of 55,000 fans at the Santiago Bernabeu, the Brazilian playmaker had both landmarks shattered by Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese forward hadn’t even arrived in the Spanish capital and was already the subject of conversation at Kaka’s unveiling. Ever the diplomat, the former AC Milan star squashed any whispers of discontent with the assurance: “There will be no rivalry with Cristiano. We are compatible and there will be no problem between us either on or off the pitch.”

8

Neymar – 56,500

Barcelona

Neymar’s transfer to Barcelona was dizzyingly complicated. The murky mathematics behind the deal were only uncovered years later after various legal proceedings, revealing the true cost of the Brazilian’s transfer to be in the region of £72.4m, almost double the fee originally quoted by Barcelona.

After spurning the advances of Chelsea and reneging on an earlier agreement to move to Spain in 2014, Neymar finally became an official Barcelona player on 4th June 2013. Less than 48 hours on from tormenting England during a friendly in the Maracana, the Brazilian swapped blue and yellow for blaugrana, performing an accomplished set of keepy-uppies in front of 56,500 Barcelona fans.

7

Robert Lewandowski – 59,026

Barcelona

Robert Lewandowski may have been in the winter of his career when he moved to Barcelona in 2022, but the prolific Pole still inspired a feverish level of excitement in the Catalan capital. Just shy of 60,000 fans packed into Camp Nou to see a player who quickly lived up to his lofty billing.

On his 34th birthday, Lewandowski opened his account with a brace against Real Sociedad. The former Bayern Munich finisher became the first player to score more than 10 goals across his first 10 La Liga appearances since the Brazilian Ronaldo in 1996 before ending the campaign as the league’s top scorer. The Spanish press couldn’t decide between ‘Lethaldowski’ or ‘Goalandowski’. His manager Xavi Hernandez simply called him “a blessing”.

6

Endrick – 60,000

Real Madrid

In pursuit of the best possible career, Endrick can come across as calculating. “People say I have a heart of ice and I’m very cold with the decisions I make and what I say,” the Brazilian teenager admitted. But he offered a rare burst of emotion when he was presented as a Real Madrid player in front of 60,000 fans in July 2024.

A week after turning 18 and officially being able to sign for Real Madrid, a club that he had agreed to join all the way back in December 2022, the former Palmeiras starlet fulfilled his childhood dream of moving to Spain’s capital. Once he had wiped away the tears, Endrick said: “I hope to be at Real Madrid for my entire career.”

5

Karim Benzema – 60,000

Al Ittihad

In the region of 60,000 fans flocked to Al Ittihad’s King Abdullah Sports City to see Karim Benzema in the summer of 2023. Six months on from the watershed arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr – who sold out their 25,000-seater venue for his presentation – the Saudi Pro League pulled off the coup of nabbing the reigning Ballon d’Or holder.

Benzema and his golden trophy were treated to a grand show, equipped with pyrotechnics, fireworks and strobe lighting. Only 4,000 fans turned up for the Frenchman’s first league appearance two months later. The King Abdullah Sports City never again matched the attendance figures set by Benzema’s arrival, averaging less than half of the 62,000 capacity (24,370).

4

Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 60,000

Barcelona

Hindsight is perfect and pointless. When Zlatan Ibrahimovic was unveiled to the largest Barcelona crowd ever assembled for a player presentation in 2009, he explained the relief that washed over him once his departure from Inter Milan was confirmed. “I was fed up of Italy, of Milan, of your football,” the Swede bluntly told an Italian journalist. “You play badly, there’s too much stress. I needed something else.”

After a record-breaking start to his career in Catalonia, including a sequence of 11 goals in his first 13 La Liga games, the shine of his new surroundings began to fade. Ibrahimovic infamously fell out with Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola and was increasingly shunted onto the wing to accommodate Lionel Messi. Less than a year after ditching Serie A, Zlatan was back in Italy, signing for Inter’s neighbours AC Milan.

3

Diego Maradona – 70,000

Napoli

After ascending the concrete staircase leading from the bowels of the stadium to the Stadio San Paolo’s pitch, Diego Maradona was greeted by dozens of cameramen elbowing each other for prime position and 70,000 fans packed into the stands. Flags, flares and a febrile atmosphere afforded the most expensive player in the world a hero’s welcome. He would soon be considered a god.

Taking a team which had only narrowly escaped relegation to the club’s first pair of Serie A titles, all while humiliating the best players in the world with a spell-binding manipulation of the ball, Maradona inspired widespread worship. Next to the mandatory picture of Jesus, most Neapolitan households would have an image of El Diego. One nurse snatched a vial of Maradona’s blood from the hospital and left it on a shrine in a Catholic church. After the icon passed away in 2020, the stadium which hosted his heaving presentation ditched the name of Saint Paul to forever be known as Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

2

Kylian Mbappe – 80,000

Real Madrid

One day after Spanish fans covered every available inch of Madrid’s Plaza de la Villa Square, rejoicing in the national team’s victory at Euro 2024, another 80,000 piled into the Santiago Bernabeu to hail a Frenchman. Kylian Mbappe’s Bleus were knocked out by Spain in the semi-finals of the continental competition, but the former Paris Saint-Germain forward was all smiles after his long-awaited arrival at Real Madrid.

Mbappe had spent the best part of two decades fantasising about a move to Spain’s capital. A family friend bought the Frenchman a model of the Bernabeu when he was six, poking fun at his obsession with the club. Mbappe responded by forcibly telling him: “No, one day I will take you there.” After waving at the record-equalling figure of 80,000, Mbappe triumphantly produced the model stadium he had kept all these years.

1

Cristiano Ronaldo – 80,000

Real Madrid

“I didn’t expect a jam-packed stadium,” Cristiano Ronaldo said into his microphone while looking out at the 80,000 fans stuffed in the Santiago Bernabeu, “this is truly impressive.” The Portuguese superstar’s surprise was understandable. Only 45,000 supporters had bothered to turn up for Real Madrid’s final home match of the 2008/09 campaign six weeks earlier, as the capital club finished a distant second behind arch-rivals Barcelona.

But the arrival of Ronaldo for a world-record fee sparked excitement throughout the city. Thousands had spent the morning queuing under the beating sun to secure the hottest ticket in town. Real Madrid’s fiercely ambitious president Florentino Perez always strives for record-breaking figures, but was proven correct when he claimed that Ronaldo’s presentation “might not have a precedent”.

Information from The Athletic, ESPN and Diario AS. Correct as of 29th July 2024.