5 transfers that shocked the football world

#2 Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham United, 2006

Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano's move to West Ham was massively controversial

Back in 2006, highly-touted Argentine stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano were being linked with big teams all across Europe, from the giants of Spain’s La Liga to the wealthiest clubs in England’s Premier League. So it came as a monstrous shock when they made the move from Brazilian club Corinthians to relegation candidates West Ham United of all clubs in August 2006. Then-Hammers boss Alan Pardew seemed as surprised as anyone to pose for a photo with them, although he rarely deployed them as just four months later he was fired.

Within weeks of the move, rumours began to swirl around that the reason other clubs hadn’t been willing to touch the young Argentines was that their contracts weren’t owned by Corinthians, but by a third party – in this case, Media Sports Investment (MSI) who were also rumoured to be considering buying out....you guessed it, it's West Ham. The truth of what actually happened remains largely a mystery, but the general consensus is that West Ham never truly owned the contracts of the players.

At any rate, Mascherano was shipped to Liverpool on loan in January 2007 and later made a permanent move, while Tevez stuck around and almost single-handedly saved West Ham from relegation. He moved to Manchester United the following summer, and barely a year later in June 2008, the Premier League announced a full ban on any third-party ownership of players. It was a sorry state of affairs overall, but the fact that two world-class prospects ever moved to West Ham remains incredibly shocking to this day.