Former Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, West Ham, Newcastle United and Ibrox outfit Rangers players all feature.
Di Stefano looking as miffed as the rest of us by Julien Faubert’s loan from West Ham to Real Madrid
Transfers are an integral part of the modern game, with the strength of a teams recruitment often coming to define their season. The great pieces of business are well-known, as are the multi-million pound flops, but what about the downright weird deals?
Transfers tend to involve the movement of a player who has impressed to a better, bigger or wealthier club, as well as the movement of a player who is out of favour at one club moving on to another. Here HITC Sevens takes a look at some transfers that were a little trickier to get your head around, focussing on the strangest pieces of business to have taken place in the beautiful game.
7. Paul Gascoigne to Boston United
Paul Gascoigne in action for Glasgow Rangers
It takes a lot for Paul Gascoigne to shock the world of football. The former England star who is gifted and troubled in equally superfluous amounts may have been 37 when he linked up with the League Two side, but it still came as a shock to many. Gazza, once of Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers, rejected a contract from MLS side DC United and had just had a spell in China when he signed for the English minnows.
Boston would prove to be the Ballon d’Or nominees last professional club, and it wasn’t a match made in heaven. Gascoigne played five times, failing to score, departing his role as a player-coach after three months due to personal reasons.
6. Julien Faubert to Real Madrid
Former West Ham man Julien Faubert on the ball for Real Madrid
Julien Faubert’s loan move from West Ham United to Real Madrid really did raise a few eyebrows. The Frenchman had been a decent utility player for the Hammers, nothing more, nothing less. Real forked out £1.5 million to take Faubert on a season-long loan, during which time he made two appearances, missing training once and famously being pictured asleep on the bench for Los Blancos.
He returned to West Ham in the summer of 2009, with Real Madrid seemingly uninterested in making the signing permanent. Fortunately for Real, they did manage to bring in Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka that same summer, and just about coped without Faubert.
5. Edgar Davids to Barnet
Edgar Davids during his time at Tottenham Hotspur
A tenacious, dynamic and explosive central midfielder with the ability to break up play and drive forward with the ball, Edgar Davids won the Champions League and league titles in the Netherlands and Italy. Naturally then, it was only a matter of time before he donned the famous black and amber of Barnet FC…
Well, he did, anyway, signing for the League Two side as a player-manager in 2012. Relegated from League Two, the all-time great ended up strutting his stuff in the Conference, where he was sent off three times in his first eight games. All in, Davids played 38 games in less than two seasons for the Bees.
4. Sol Campbell to Notts County
Sol Campbell played for Arsenal and Newcastle after his ill-fated move to Notts County
Sol Campbell has been involved in a couple of transfers that have shocked the British game, initially when he became the world’s first £100,000 a week player in a controversial move from Tottenham Hotspur to North London rivals Arsenal.
He went a step further in 2009 though, signing a five-year deal with Notts County at the age of 35, re-uniting with ex-England manager Sven Goran Eriksson. “I was being a mug,” Campbell later said of the move. He played once for Notts County, his contract being cancelled three days after he had signed.
3. Ronnie O’Brien to Juventus
Ronnie O’Brien was released by Middlesbrough before joining Juventus
Into the top three and into truly mind boggling territory. The move of Ronnie O’Brien to Juventus is one of the strangest the game has ever seen. The uncapped Irishman was released by Middlesbrough in 1999, then aged 20, and had never played a professional football game in his life.
Who should come calling then? None other than Italian giants Juventus of course, offering O’Brien an incredible five-year deal. He never played for the Old Lady, being loaned out four times in his three years at the Stadio delle Alpi. O’Brien went on to have a decent career in the MLS.
2. George Best to Dunstable & Jewish Guild
At the age of 22, George Best had won two league titles, the European Cup and the Ballon d’Or. He had, quite literally, the world at his feet. Blessed with all the talent in the world, Bestie beat players at will, but his career was as good as over at the highest level in his mid-late 20’s. In 1974, Best went on-loan, first to South African side Jewish Guild and then to non-league side Dunstable.
He left United for good at the end of the season, becoming a serial journeyman, making 17 moves over the next nine years. At the age in which Best should have been hitting his prime and proving himself as one of football’s greatest ever players, he was missing training sessions and looking uninterested for minnows across the globe.
1. Socrates to Garforth Town
Socrates warms up for his solitary appearance for Garforth Town
It is still hard to believe that the great Socrates really did turn out for ninth tier English non-league side Garforth Town. A wonderful midfield playmaker, Socrates was an icon of the 1980’s, and a star of Brazil’s famous 1982 World Cup team. His club days were best spent with Botafogo and Corinthians, but in 2004, he came out of retirement to complete the most bizarre transfer the game has ever seen.
The man nicknamed the ‘Doctor’ signed a one-month player-coaching deal with the Yorkshire club, which saw him make just one appearance, coming on 12 minutes from time against fellow Yorkshire minnows Tadcaster Albion.
Honourable Mentions
Tyrone Mears to Marseille, Kevin Keegan to Southampton, Nicklas Bendtner to Juventus, Craig Davies to Hellas Verona, Sir Bobby Charlton to Waterford Town, Jimmy Greaves to Barnet, Claudio Caniggia to Dundee, Ali Dia to Southampton and many more.
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