#2 Diego Maradona to Sheffield United
According to many, the greatest ever footballer to have lived, Diego Maradona, came remarkably close to signing for Sheffield United, who are currently in England’s third divison.
Then manager Harry Haslam spotted a 17-year-old Maradona during a scouting trip to Argentina in 1978. However, he was unable to put together the £200,000 required to sign him to the Blades. Instead, they signed Alejandro Sabella for £160,000 from River Plate. While he wasn’t an underwhelming signing by any standard, he was unable to prevent the Blades from relegation into the third division. Sabella was then sold to Leeds United for £400,000.
Maradona went on to have incredible success with Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli, winning numerous personal accolades and developing into arguably the greatest footballer to have ever lived.
While it is difficult to predict how his career may have panned out if he had ended up signing for Sheffield United, playing in the lower leagues may not have catapulted him to the stardom he managed to achieve with those other clubs.
