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#3 Dimitri Payet at West Ham, 2017
French set-piece expert Dimitri Payet became infamous in January 2017 when he went on strike in an attempt to force through a move from West Ham to Marseille, the club that had sold him to the Hammers in the first place.
It wasn’t just the strike that soured him in the eyes of West Ham fans – it had a lot to do with the fact that he’d only signed a mega-money £125k per week contract eleven months earlier.
Of course, at that point, Payet and West Ham hadn’t counted on the Frenchman becoming one of the Premier League’s most well-admired players, as well as becoming one of the surprise stars of that summer’s Euro 2016 tournament.
They also hadn’t counted on Marseille receiving new financial backers; supposedly, Payet had only been sold to West Ham due to the French side’s struggling finances, and he hadn’t really wanted to move.
And so when Marseille made their move and were told the player wasn’t for sale, Payet threw his toys out of the pram and said he’d never kick another ball for the Hammers.
He was dropped from their upcoming match with Crystal Palace and headed home, and eventually, West Ham caved when they realised they had no choice. They did receive £25m, though – making a profit of around £14m on the French star.
