Birmingham City’s top 5 record signings: What is each player doing now?

The Blues were one of the top teams in England for a brief period of time, winning the League Cup in 2011 and playing in the Premier League for seven seasons over a nine-year period that began in 2002.

This season, as the team fights to stay in League One, St Andrew’s is facing its most difficult season in maybe ten years.

Birmingham has spent a lot of money in the past in an attempt to rejoin the Premier League, but this hasn’t worked out well, despite their current difficulties.

The top five record signings for Birmingham City will be examined here, along with their current activities.

James McFadden – £4.75m

In 2008, Birmingham City paid an alleged £4.75 million to sign Scottish forward James McFadden from Everton.

Before being released due to injury issues, the Scotsman made 88 appearances with the Blues between 2008 and 2011, tallying 14 goals and 15 assists.

After several stints with Everton, Sunderland, Motherwell, St Johnstone, and Queen of the South, he retired in 2018 and joined the coaching staff of former Blues manager Alex McLeish’s Scotland squad. After McLeish was fired in 2019, McFadden departed this position.

Roger Johnson – £5m

In the summer of 2009, Birmingham paid £5 million to acquire Roger Johnson, a center defender, from Cardiff City.

After St Andrew’s was relegated in 2011, he played for two years, totaling 88 games, before departing to join Wolves.

After leaving Molineux, he went on to have long stints at Bromley, Charlton Athletic, and Indian team Pune City until retiring in 2019.

In September 2022, he was appointed manager of Brackley Town, a National League North team. He departed the team in April 2023 with mutual consent.

David Dunn – £5.5m

David Dunn, an attacking midfielder, joined St Andrew’s in 2003 after reportedly paying Blackburn Rovers £5.5 million.

Dunn played for Blues in just 68 games throughout his four years at St Andrew’s, tallying eight goals and five assists.

The former England international came back to Blackburn in 2007 and stayed at Ewood Park until 2015, when he signed a contract to play for Oldham Athletic in the 2015–16 campaign.

After enjoying stints as a member of the coaching staffs at Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool, he was appointed manager of the Latics in the 2015–16 campaign. After a brief stint as Barrow’s manager in 2020, he most recently served as assistant manager at Port Vale, a position he left in February 2024.

Nikola Zigic – £6m

In 2010, Serbian striker Nikola Zigic paid £6 million to go from Valencia to Birmingham City.

He spent the final years of his career at St Andrew’s, leaving the team in 2015 following a five-year stay in the second-biggest city in England.

He made 159 appearances for the Blues in all, tallying 18 assists and 36 goals.

It’s unclear what the large striker is doing these days because Zigic doesn’t appear to be on social media and has maintained a low profile since leaving St Andrew’s.

Jota – £6m plus

When he transferred from Brentford, a Championship team, to Birmingham in 2017, Spanish midfielder Jota became the club’s record acquisition.

Jota made 75 appearances and scored eight goals during his two seasons at Birmingham City, for a total reported fee of slightly over £6 million.

He departed the team in the summer of 2019 to play for Aston Villa, Birmingham’s fierce rivals, who had just been promoted to the Premier League. After a year, he moved back to his own country and joined Deportivo Alavés, leaving Villa behind.

Despite having retired at the age of thirty, he is reportedly doing well now that he has invested millions of dollars in an agricultural technology company and is almost a billionaire, according to the Daily Mail.