5 of the craziest transfer hijacks in football history

#3 Robinho to Chelsea, hijacked by Manchester City in 2008

Manchester City's new money allowed them to hijack Chelsea's move for Robinho

Perhaps Chelsea’s future transfer hijackings were inspired by one that went against them back in 2008. In this case, they were gazumped by Manchester City for the services of Brazilian winger Robinho, who was at the time one of the hottest properties in all of world football.

He’d been tearing things up at Real Madrid, but became unhappy at the giant Spanish club and decided he wanted out – supposedly crying in the office of the club president to force a move through.

And so Chelsea figured they had their man. They had the money to spend, naturally, and had been trailing the Brazilian for some time. Robinho supposedly wanted to live in London, and so Real gave him permission to head to Stamford Bridge for contract talks.

The Blues hadn’t figured City into the picture though, but newly minted with billions following their takeover at the hands of the Abu Dhabi group, the Citizens swept in and signed Robinho for a huge £32.5m, with Chelsea being forced to state that they weren’t willing to pay the asking price for the player.

To show just how shocking a hijack this was, though, nobody had seemed to tell Robinho he was actually going to Manchester and not London.

In the press conference to unveil the player, Robinho explained to the press that he was happy that Real Madrid had accepted Chelsea’s offer... before someone pointed out the gaffe and the Brazilian was forced to correct himself – Manchester, not Chelsea. It was a hilarious moment that summed up the jaw-dropping nature of the whole deal.