5 of the craziest transfer hijacks in football history

#2 Mohamed Salah to Liverpool, hijacked by Chelsea in 2014

Liverpool could've had Mohamed Salah in 2014 had it not been for a Chelsea hijack

What is it with Chelsea stealing away flashy attacking players from under the nose of their rivals? Not content with tempting Willian away from a move to Tottenham in the summer of 2013, they did exactly the same thing with Egyptian winger-cum-striker Mohamed Salah in the following January 2014 transfer window.

At the time, Salah was playing for FC Basel, where he’d shot to fame with some excellent performances in the 2012/13 Europa League and had then scored against Chelsea on two occasions in the 2013/14 Champions League group stages, helping Basel to beat the Blues both home and away.

He looked like a tremendous prospect, but Chelsea already had Oscar, Willian, Ramires, and Eden Hazard, so they certainly didn’t need another player of that ilk, right?

Well, that idea turned out to be wrong. But naturally, the move only came about when Salah and his representatives had got into prolonged talks about a move to Liverpool – Chelsea’s big Premier League title rivals that season.

Brendan Rodgers had hoped to add Salah to his squad to help with the last push for the title, but Liverpool brass couldn’t agree a fee and so Chelsea gazumped them, with Salah’s agent claiming Liverpool’s indecisiveness was to blame.

The move turned out to be a disaster for Salah, as he played just 19 times for Chelsea before moving on loan to Fiorentina and then to Roma, where he made a permanent move.

And then, of course, Liverpool signed him in the summer of 2017 – three-and-a-half years late – and he’s scored 23 goals for them this season already. Funny how things turn out!