July 27, 2009: Barcelona and Inter Milan shook up European football in dramatic style, with a mega-money swap deal for two of the continent's most lethal strikers.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic left the Italian side for the Camp Nou, with Cameroonian No. 9 Samuel Eto'o going the other way—along with around £35 million and, initially, Alexander Hleb on a season-long loan.

It's fair to say Inter came out on top in that particular deal, with Ibrahimovic lasting a single campaign in La Liga before being loaned and sold to AC Milan, while Eto'o was a regular scorer for two years and won the Serie A, Coppa Italia and UEFA Champions League treble in his first campaign in Italy.

Hleb, meanwhile, turned down Inter and joined Stuttgart on loan instead, marking the beginning of a downward spiral. His top-level career was effectively over from that moment.

Regardless of which players came out on top, the deal itself was an enormous one: Two superpower clubs, two peak-level strikers and a huge amount of money, it was one of the biggest transfers at the top end of European football.

But where does it rank among other swap deals which have taken place since 2000? We've scoured the record books to find out if there was one bigger.

Here are the 12 biggest which have taken place in that time.

12. Francesco Coco for Clarence Seedorf

Considering they're a reasonably rare occurrence, Inter Milan have a history of being involved in player-exchange deals—but they don't always come out on top.

Back in 2002, Seedorf was already a massive talent with over 50 Netherlands caps to his name and two Champions League titles, but Inter saw fit to offload him to rivals AC Milan for full-back Francesco Coco.

If you have little or no memory of Coco, that pretty much sums up how badly Inter came out of the deal.

Long-term injuries, failed loan moves and retirement at age 30 were the outcome for Coco, while Seedorf went on to win a further two Champions League titles across the city.

11. Fabian Carini for Fabio Cannavaro

Perhaps swapping Seedorf wasn't Inter's worst mistake, though.

Former Uruguay international goalkeeper Fabian Carini was Juventus' backup choice for three years, while Fabio Cannavaro was an Italian first-choice centre-back, had played over 70 matches in two years for the Nerazurri and was a household name.

The two clubs somehow valued the duo at the same price and a straight swap was made in 2004—two years before Cannavaro won the Ballon d'Or and World Player of the Year, while Carini moved on loan to Cagliari before joining Real Murcia in a permanent deal.

10. Diego Milito and Thiago Motta for four players, one co-ownership and cash

Sometimes, the ever-busy Inter get it right in swap deals, and it's fair to say the big double switch they snared from Genoa in 2009 worked out well for them.

They brought in Diego Milito and Thiago Motta, both of whom were key parts of Jose Mourinho's treble-winning team.

In the opposite direction went a certain Leonardo Bonucci—then rated at just €3 million—along with Robert Acquafresca, Francesco Bolzoni, Riccardo Meggiorini and the co-ownership registration rights of Ivan Fatic. Of the latter four names, only Acquafresca has had anything approaching an impressive top-flight career.

9. Fernando Torres for Alessio Cerci

With the muddled approaches of Inter out the way, one move made waves in Spain in January 2015: Fernando Torres returned home, loaned from AC Milan to Atletico Madrid just days after signing a permanent deal at the San Siro.

In the opposite direction went Alessio Cerci, a complete flop at Atleti after his big-money move at the start of that campaign.

Since then, Torres has signed a permanent contract and plays an important squad role for Los Rojiblancos, including featuring in the UEFA Champions League final in 2016, while Cerci failed on loan at both Milan and Genoa before being signed this summer on a free by Verona.

8. Lorik Cana for Fernando Muslera

Galatasaray got in on the exchange act in 2011—unsurprisingly, perhaps, alongside another Italian club—when they brought in Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera from Lazio.

In the opposite direction went Albanian midfielder Lorik Cana, who spent four years in total at the Serie A side as a regular performer in the centre of the park.

Both sides were likely pleased with the outcome of this deal; Muslera remains at Galatasaray, a veteran of well over 200 games for the SuperLig side and with close to a century of caps to his name at international level, the vast majority of which have come since this transfer.

7. Giampaolo Pazzini for Antonio Cassano

Two well-travelled strikers combined to switch Milan clubs in 2012, with Giampaolo Pazzini taking the Inter-to-AC Milan route and Antonio Cassano going in reverse.

Pazzini was the more valuable of the duo in the exchange, rated at €13 million to Cassano's €5.5 million, with the Rossoneri paying out accordingly. Pazzini wasn't exactly prolific after swapping blue and black for red and black, but the now-32-year-old enjoyed a revival last term by scoring 23 for Hellas Verona.

Cassano, who has retired twice in the past week, continued his career in the same vein as usual: short-term stays at clubs, arguments with club officials and not scoring enough goals his talent should warrant.

One year at Inter, two each at Parma and Sampdoria, and Cassano's race looks done.

6. Ashley Cole for William Gallas

While Italy clearly holds dominance in player-swap deals, it's a rare occurrence in England—and even more so for the top teams in the Premier League.

The debate over who had won the best deal was fierce at the time after Chelsea gave Arsenal £5 million and William Gallas to snare Ashley Cole's signature—but seven years' service, the majority of his England caps and eight major trophies points to the Blues coming out on top.

Gallas spent four years at Arsenal, won nothing—and then left to join north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

5. Leonardo Bonucci for Domenico Criscito and Sergio Almiron

Bonucci again. This time, just a year after he left Inter for Genoa—and immediately signed for Bari on a co-ownership deal—the defender was wanted by Juventus, who forked out €15 million for his services.

The complicated co-ownership structure, however, meant Bari first signed his remaining registration rights from Genoa, who Bonucci never actually played for, and then Juve paid out to Bari for the player in addition to 50 per cent of the rights of Sergio Almiron.

Genoa, meanwhile, also signed up the remaining portion of Criscito's rights for their part in the deal.

Bonucci signed for AC Milan this summer for around €40 million.

4. Ricardo Quaresma for Deco

No more co-ownerships to work through, we're down to straight player-plus-cash deals for the top four.

Quaresma had flopped at Barcelona and moved back to Portugal after just one season to FC Porto, with midfield schemer Deco moving in the opposite direction.

Deco was the more expensive of the two, unsurprisingly given he had just won the Champions League as a key player under Jose Mourinho, and he'd go on to enjoy a four-year stay with the Catalan club.

Quaresma spent the same time at Porto before a meandering journey around Europe—plus Al-Ahly—and is still going strong at 33, now with Besiktas.

3. Luis Garcia for Fernando Torres

Liverpool won the Champions League final in 2005, then lost it two years later—both times against AC Milan. Luis Garcia played in the first but was injured for the second, and he left the club immediately after the 2007 final.

In came Fernando Torres, a club-record signing at around £27 million, with Garcia making up around £4 million of that. The two deals were initially completed as standalone transfers in case one or the other fell through, but when it became apparent that all was well, they were reported as a swap move.

Torres was a regular scorer for the Reds but never won a trophy, before moving on to Chelsea for another record fee. Garcia, meanwhile, stayed at Atleti until his veteran days, whereupon he made a series of moves to the likes of Panathinaikos in Greece, Puebla in Mexico and Central Coast Mariners in Australia.

2. David Luiz for Nemanja Matic

Perhaps the biggest player swap not involving an Italian club came when Nemanja Matic departed Chelsea for Benfica in January 2011, with David Luiz the ultimate target of the English side.

Chelsea forked out more than £20 million in addition to midfielder Matic to land Luiz, a standout centre-back for the Portuguese side for five years by that point.

Coincidentally, both players have left and rejoined Chelsea: Matic re-signed for the Stamford Bridge side in 2014 for around £20 million, while Luiz left in the same year and rejoined one year ago after two seasons at Paris Saint-Germain.

1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Samuel Eto'o

Top of the swap deals, though, has to be the Ibrahimovic-Eto'o exchange, which was worth more money and for two elite strikers in or near their prime.

Perhaps it's as well that Inter came out on top, both financially and with regard to the sporting success of the two at their new clubs, given the dubious nature of some of our earlier swap deals for the Nerazzurri.

Now both veteran forwards, Ibrahmovic is a free agent having left Manchester United in the summer, 35 years old and with a long-term injury to recover from, while Eto'o has spent the last two years at Antalyaspor in Turkey, aged 36 and still averaging more than a goal every two games for his side.

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