37. Ousmane Dembele
Dembele broke out as a wunderkind in Germany and convinced Barcelona to spend millions on him. However, the French international endured a miserable injury record in Spain. Meanwhile, Barcelona had financial struggles in 2022 and wanted to reduce its payouts.

They saw him as expendable and tried to force him to leave. But Dembele refused to go because he didn’t want to lose money or play for a weaker club. Barcelona threatened him with legal action even though they had no case. Dembele was happy to leave them high and dry by staying put (via The Guardian).