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Football’s transfer season is something that’s followed as religiously (read: fanatically) as its normal season by disciples of the beautiful game. Such is its influence that newspapers and TV channels (and now blogs/vlogs) dedicate whole sections to it.
Twitter goes into overdrive with various trends relating to it and fans spend sleepless nights trying to keep up with it. Meanwhile, individuals from all walks of life try to predict the moves made during this frenetic period.
However, football is a wonderfully unpredictable sport. And while you may be successful in creating the perfect Fantasy Football team (right after you FINALLY settle on a perfect name for it), defending your title of FIFA King, sitting through an entire late night (or should we say early morning) Champions League game without dozing off, or even resisting the urge to indulge in a bit of football banter on social media, there’s no way you can successfully predict the outcome of the transfer season.
Especially in the modern era, with several smaller clubs gaining big ticket acquisitions, agents – who are the modern football Chief Executive’s nightmare – able to switch their client’s allegiances to the highest bidder in a heartbeat, administrative hurdles (and in a few cases a faulty fax machine) which cause transfers to go down to the wire or fail altogether.
Sometimes even a plain old change of heart that can prove enough to throw a spanner into the longest of transfer sagas.
All in all, it isn’t easy being a football fan during the transfer season. The struggle, and the heartache, is real. Then again, transfer season is something we can’t live without, especially if there are a few surprises involved. And boy, have there been many over the years! With that in mind, let’s take a look at the five most unexpected transfers in football history.
#5 Robinho to Manchester City
Manchester City’s signing of Robinho holds the distinction of being the first under the Sheikh Mansour era, which heralded an age of unprecedented success that continues to this very day. However, the circumstances surrounding the Brazilian’s transfer weren’t as cut and dry.
After three seasons with Real Madrid – where he won two league titles – Robinho’s Los Blancos career was at a crossroads with the club repeatedly stalling on a new contract. Instead, they seemed to be angling towards using him as a makeweight to facilitate Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to the Bernabeu.
Soon, Chelsea entered the fray, marking the beginning of a protracted transfer saga. After it became clear that a move for Manchester United’s Ronaldo wouldn’t materialise in 2008, Madrid finally decided to negotiate with Robinho, who rejected their efforts in due to him heavily favouring a move to Chelsea.
Things went down to the wire despite Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon stating that the club were confident about the transfer happening. However, on September 1st 2008, the final day of the transfer window, Robinho made a shock move to newly-acquired Manchester City for a fee of £32.5 million.
The transfer surprised the world, including the player himself, who after his transfer was quoted as saying "On the last day, Chelsea made a great proposal and I accepted" before correcting himself after a reporter pointed out the gaffe. Despite his transfer saga, Robinho had a decent first season at City – and was their fourth highest scorer in the league with 14 goals in 31 appearances. Overall, he failed to live up to the expectations during his two-year stay at the Etihad.
#4 Carlos Tevez to West Ham United
Argentine duo Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano both completed unexpected transfers to West Ham from Corinthians back in 2006, but the former gets a place on the list due to him being involved in more than one controversial transfer in his chequered career.
Tevez and Mascherano, who just ended a phenomenal season with Corinthians, were on the radar of several top clubs but eventually made a shock move to the Hammers due to other clubs turning down opportunities to sign them due to their rights being owned by third parties.
Later, it emerged that West Ham breached Premier League rules over the signing of Tevez and Mascherano, and were forced to pay a massive fine of £5 million. However, Tevez turned out to be worth every penny and quickly became a fan favourite, with his final goal for the relegation-threatened Hammers, which he scored against his future club Manchester United, securing their stay in the Premier League.
Tevez departed West Ham as their Hammer of the Year and went on to have glittering stints at Manchester United, a club he left under controversial circumstances, and cross-town rivals Manchester City.
#3 Roy Keane to Manchester United
Sir Alex Ferguson signed countless quality players during his legendary reign as manager of Manchester United, but the Scot’s capture of Roy Keane counts as one of his very best. After making a name for himself with Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, Keane emerged as one of the hottest prospects in English football and was on the radar of several top clubs after Nottingham’s relegation from the Premier League in 1993.
Blackburn Rovers, then managed by Kenny Dalglish, were in pole position to sign the player after the Irishman had a word with the Liverpool legend, and started getting things into place when the relegation clause in Keane’s contract became active.
However, despite agreeing on a contract, Blackburn discovered that the deal could not go through as the club didn’t have the correct paperwork in place, and since their office was closed for the weekend (it was a Friday afternoon), the parties agreed to complete the deal on Monday morning.
This news reached the ears of Sir Alex, who instantly phoned the youngster and inquired whether he’d fancy a move to Manchester. Upon hearing that he would, the Scot ensured that the Old Trafford club had all the necessary paperwork ready on Saturday and went on to sign Keane for a then-British transfer record of £3.75 million.
The fiery Irishman, who emerged as one of the greatest ever players in his position with Manchester United, won seven Premier Leagues, four FA Cups and the Champions League, amongst other honours at Old Trafford, where he’s revered as a god. All in all, this is one unexpected transfer that turned out to be worth every penny.
#2 Sol Campbell to Arsenal
One of football’s most controversial transfers is also one of the game's most unexpected. Up until 2001, Sol Campbell was a legend at Tottenham Hotspur. Having come through the ranks at White Hart Lane since he was a teenager, Campbell made his Spurs debut in 1992, and after just one appearance that year, went on to make 42 appearances in all competitions the next season, which was just the start of what was to be a very special career.
The defender lifted the League Cup with Spurs in 1999, making him the first black captain to do so at Wembley. However, despite his phenomenal talent, Campbell had a difficult relationship with Spurs managers Christian Gross and George Graham, as well as the club in general due to their lack of support during his assault case, wherein he was falsely accused of breaking a steward’s arm in a skirmish that occurred during a match against Derby County.
Campbell’s disenchantment with the Spurs caused him to run down the remainder of his contract, which expired in 2001. With the Bosman ruling having recently come into effect, Spurs made every effort to get Campbell to commit to the club, including a deal to make him their highest-paid player ever, but after months of negotiations and public assurances from the Englishman, he made the unexpected move of joining Spurs’ bitter rivals Arsenal on a free transfer.
The move took the world by complete shock as not a single rumour linking Campbell to Arsenal emerged before the transfer. Needless to say, the Spurs faithful were surprised and outraged with not only the manner of the transfer but also the destination, which led to them labelling Campbell – who endured a lot of ire and sickening racist abuse from Spurs fans - a Judas.
However, Campbell bloomed at Arsenal, winning two Premier League titles – including one as part of the Invincibles in 2004 – two FA Cups and three PFA Team of the Year honours while also shining for England during the same period, earning a place on the 2002 FIFA World Cup All-Star Team and the 2004 UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament.
#1 Luis Figo to Real Madrid
That Luis Figo is considered as one of the greatest players to have ever played the game is no surprise. What is surprising even to this day was his decision to swap Barcelona for bitter rivals Real Madrid back in 2000.
He won a plethora of trophies at Barcelona, including two La Ligas, two Copa del Reys and the Spanish Super Cup. Figo also won a host of personal honours, including three consecutive La Liga Foreign Player of the Year and Portuguese Footballer of the Year awards, crowned by a Ballon d’Or.
Figo made a shock transfer to Madrid – with his arrival ushering in Florentino Perez’s Galactico era.
To say that the Barcelona faithful were hurt by his transfer to their bitter rivals would be an understatement. On his return to Camp Nou as a Los Blancos player on October 21st, 2000, Figo received a chillingly hostile reception from 98,000 Barca fans, who not only hurled insults like ‘Judas’, ‘Scum’ and ‘Mercenary’ at their one-time hero but also bombarded the pitch with various missiles including oranges, bottles, cigarette lighters and even mobile phones.
His second match at Camp Nou on November 23rd, 2002 proved to be even more infamous, with Barca fans throwing everything from beer cans, bottles, golf balls and the most iconic of all – a pig’s head – every time the Portuguese took corners and throw-ins, so much so that play had to be suspended for 20 minutes due to the pandemonium.
Nevertheless, Figo had a noteworthy Madrid career – winning two La Liga titles, the Champions League, two Spanish Super Cups, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup – as well as the FIFA World Player of the Year back in 2001.
