5 of the craziest transfer hijacks in football history

As a big fan of any football team, there can be few worse things than a transfer hijack. You know the scenario – the newspapers and gossip websites start linking your team with a big-name player, the manager and player both sound interested, the deal is apparently all but done....and then at the last second, another team – usually a bigger and richer one – steps in to steal the player away just as it seemed safe to have his name printed on your shirt.

In the cut-throat world of modern football this kind of thing happens time after time, and with greedy agents representing practically every player, the only thing that really talks these days is money, and how much of it both player and agent can get.

And so they’re quite willing to play clubs off one another, put out false links to the media to speed up a move, and so forth. But naturally, it’s always the club doing the hijacking that gets the blame from the fans.

Here are five of the most shocking transfer hijacks in football history.

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#1 Willian to Tottenham Hotspur, hijacked by Chelsea in 2013

Willian's move to Chelsea came after he completed a medical at Tottenham

A hugely frustrating one for all Tottenham fans, the hijacking of the transfer of Brazilian winger Willian from Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala in 2013 by Chelsea was made even worse by the veiled taunts levelled at Spurs by then-Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho following the completion of the move.

At the time, Spurs were looking to splurge the £85m that Real Madrid were about to pay them for Gareth Bale, and boss Andre Villas-Boas had already broken his club’s transfer record twice to bring in Paulinho and Roberto Soldado.

At £30m, the signing of Willian would’ve broken the record again, and Spurs even managed to fend off interest from Liverpool to seemingly land the player. On August 21st, the Brazilian arrived at White Hart Lane for a medical, and all seemed to be going swimmingly.

That was of course until Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich made a quick call to his good friend Suleyman Kerimov – owner of Anzhi. And so two days later – for slightly more cash – Willian was on his way to Stamford Bridge instead.

Mourinho taunted that Tottenham should’ve “done the medical in secret” in order to keep the move quiet, but everyone involved at Spurs – from the fans to their chairman Daniel Levy – were furious, feeling Chelsea had simply bought the player to stop Tottenham from getting him.

Willian for his part claimed he snubbed Spurs to “fulfil a dream” but how true that was we’ll probably never know. In the end, the Brazilian would go on to two league titles with Chelsea, while Tottenham used the cash to buy Erik Lamela from Roma instead.

#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!

#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.

#4 Paul Gascoigne to Manchester United, hijacked by Tottenham Hotspur in 1988

The promise of a sunbed for his sister took Paul Gascoigne to Tottenham instead of Man Utd

If you thought transfer hijacks were only a thing in the modern, money-fuelled era of football, then think again. Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne’s purported transfer to Manchester United was hijacked by Tottenham Hotspur back in 1988 – a good four years before the Premier League era even began!

At the time Gascoigne had been starring for Newcastle United, and after a tremendous 1987/88 season that saw him named in the PFA Team of the Year, he was recognised as the hottest prospect in British football.

The summer of 1988 saw Gascoigne entertaining offers from Tottenham, Manchester United and Liverpool – all three amongst the biggest clubs in England.

With the potential move looking tight, United boss Alex Ferguson managed to pin Gazza down for a meeting, and when it was all said and done, the player had apparently – according to both parties – verbally agreed a move to Old Trafford. Ferguson then went on holiday to Malta, confident that when he returned, he’d have his man.

Unfortunately for Fergie he hadn’t taken into account exactly how much Spurs wanted Gascoigne. The player received a call from Tottenham’s brass asking what it would take for him to move to White Hart Lane instead, and when Gazza asked for a house for his family, a garage for his father and – bizarrely – a new sunbed for his sister, Spurs obliged.

And so Ferguson returned from his break to find that Gascoigne had made a £2.2m move to Tottenham instead of United. It would be one of Fergie’s all-time regrets, as he felt he could’ve maximised the potential of Gascoigne, who went on to largely self-destruct.

#5 John Obi Mikel to Manchester United, hijacked by Chelsea in 2005

John Obi Mikel's move to Chelsea proved to be hugely controversial

Of all the transfer hijacks in football history, Chelsea’s gazumping of Manchester United for the services of John Obi Mikel back in 2005 might go down as the strangest, if only because Mikel had outright posed in a Manchester United shirt at a press conference prior to his actual move to Stamford Bridge. So what exactly happened?

To cut a long story short, Mikel had begun his career with Norwegian club Lyn Oslo, where he carved out a reputation as one of football’s hottest teenage prospects. And so in April 2005 – a few days after the player turned 18 – Manchester United announced that they’d agreed a deal with Lyn to sign the player – crucially, bypassing Mikel’s agents and dealing purely with the player and the club. The now-infamous press conference followed shortly after.

But then Chelsea claimed they’d struck a deal with Mikel’s agents to sign the player, and suddenly Mikel himself said he’d been pressured – without his agent present – to sign for United, and in reality, he preferred the move to Chelsea.

And so both clubs – as well as the agents involved – entered into a long verbal war that finally ended with Lyn lodging an official complaint with FIFA. They decided he should return to Norway while the situation was resolved, and finally, in 2006 Chelsea got their man – but had to pay compensation to both United and Lyn for the whole mess.