Yet again, we are approaching the January transfer deadline day, after witnessing what we can all agree with a very dull transfer window.
So, in the interest of keeping things exciting, we decided to put this list together. This is 10 football transfers of all time that ‘shook the world’/got everyone really excited.
Were any of these one of your favourites?
It seems that Chelsea snached Mikel away from Manchester United at the very last second from Lyn Oslo, as the Red Devils claim they had a deal done for the midfielder. There was a massive row over who made the deal first, and the Norwegian Football Federation’s intervention led to Chelsea paying a split fee of £16m to Manchester United (£12m) and Lyn (£4m) for a player who would win every domestic and continental trophy available to him over the next decade.
Two fine players arrived in England surrounded by plenty of controversy. Arriving in 2006, both players had left just a year later, and the controversy was because both players’ rights were owned by Media Sports Investments (MSI) rather than Corinthians, and West Ham were not only fined by the Premier League for breaching the rules governing registration but also forced to arrive at a settlement with relegated Sheffield United, who – according to Neil Warnock – went down as a direct consequence of Tevez’s form.
When the King arrives at Man Utd, nobody knew how remarkable his success at Old Trafford would be. Cantona made a strong case for being the club’s greatest-ever player, his grit, flair and charisma doing much to forge the aura on which the Ferguson era was founded, incredible player.
One of the first players ever to be bought for over £1million, “I was stunned that someone was prepared to pay that much for a footballer,” Blissett told FourFourTwo of his move to Italy the year after he top-scored the First Division with 27 goals for plucky Watford.
This became a big moment in modern football, it shaped how the game is today and it’s all down to an otherwise inconsequential player. Jean-Marc Bosman was playing for RFC Liège when he decided to take his employers to court over his employment rights in the summer of 1990. Dunkerque had wanted to sign him but wouldn’t meet Liège’s asking price, resulting in his club slashing his wages by a whopping 75%.
Five years and one arduous court case later, Bosman was ruled free to move at the end of his contract without money needing to change hands between parties. The age of player power had dawned.
When he made the move to the Saints from Hamburg, he had been one of the first Englishmen to ever play oversees and was famous across Europe, if he were to return, everyone thought it would be with one of the country’s big boys, but Liverpool didn’t want to activate their buy-back clause and Lawrie McMenemy stunned football by wrangling him to unfashionable Southampton for £420,000.
In a classic case of “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, Roberto Baggio would do just that after failing to help Fiorentina beat Juventus in the 1990 UEFA Cup Final, only to join them that summer.
Nobody could believe it when this die-hard Celtic fan joined Rangers from Nantes in 1989.
Still HATED by Spurs fans up and down the country, as they refer to him as ‘Judas’. He moved to Arsenal for free after his Tottenham contract expired in 2001.
The most shocking transfer ever to be completed. “As a player at Barcelona, he never hid from anything,” commented one of Figo’s team-mates after his massively controversial £36.2 million move to rivals Real Madrid in 2000.
By Ben Kelly – @benkelly_10