'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The history of football is replete with player transfers that didn't make sense from any perspective.
Usually, teams bring in new players to bolster their rosters or address a deficient area. At other times, they attempt to raise their profile/marketability by bringing in a big-name player. However, some player transfers do not fit any of the two criteria.
On that note, let's have a look at arguably ten of the strangest transfers - in no particular order - in the history of the game.
#10 Ricardo Quaresma to Barcelona (2003)
Touted as the next big thing in football, Ricardo Quaresma instead became the proverbial journeyman.
Trending
After winning the double with Sporting Lisbon, Quaresma was shipped to Barcelona in the summer of 2003. However, the move apparently came too soon for the mercurial Portuguese.
Scoring just once in 28 games, Quaresma largely cut a frustrated figure at Camp Nou and was nowhere near his Sporting Lisbon self. Things hit nadir when he refused to play under then-Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard.
He left Barcelona the following season and has gone on to play for a number of clubs since then; Vitoria being his current one.
#9 Ciro Immobile to Borussia Dortmund (2014)
Ciro Immobile is a rather surprise inclusion in this list. That's because, after winning the Capocannoniere with Torino, Immobile made a surprise move to Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2014.
But far from being a like-for-like replacement for the prolific Robert Lewandowski, who joined Bayern Munich, the Italian striker struggled to get going.
Despite scoring four times in six Champions League games, Immobile netted only thrice in 24 Bundesliga outings as Dortmund finished a lowly seventh. The Italian, expectedly, left the German club at the end of the season.
Immobile would later open up about his struggles at Dortmund, saying:
"(We received) no help, neither me nor my family. "We must share the blame. I did not know German and I expected more help from my team-mates. But hey, you cannot expect to change the culture of a country. You feel bad if you're not used to a certain lifestyle. And German is an impossible language to learn."
After a short loan spell at Sevilla, Immobile rediscovered his mojo at Lazio, for whom he has scored 144 times in over 200 appearances and won the Capocannoniere award last year.
#8 Fernando Torres to Chelsea (2011)
Fernando Torres was one of the red-hot strikers on the planet when he made a surprise move from Liverpool to Chelsea on the final day of the 2011 winter transfer window.
However, this signing can be termed a poor one, as Chelsea failed to foresee Torres' slump and the fact that he had considerably slowed down after an injury. Nevertheless, they dished out a whopping £52.7 million for his services, but Torres was never his free-scoring Liverpool self at Stamford Bridge.
A return of 45 goals in 172 games wasn't poor by any stretch of imagination. But the then 27-year-old Torres had set the bar incredibly high at Anfield, seemingly scoring goals for fun, with Chelsea themselves being the unfortunate recipients on a few occasions.
Although Chelsea fans will forever remember Torres for his winner at Barcelona that sealed the Blues' place in the 2013 Champions League final, Torres was never the same prolific scorer he was at Liverpool.
The player eventually moved on to AC Milan and Atletico Madrid before hanging up his boots at Sagan Tosu in 2019.
In a later interview, Torres said about his underwhelming returns at Chelsea:
“Maybe, when you arrive at a club like that which is full of stars, in the middle of the season, it’s difficult to fit in. In the next season, it’s because I had a very, very bad first six months which everyone was remembering. Even if I was playing good and maybe scored a goal, all the blame was still on me."
#7 Andy Carroll to Liverpool (2011)
Andy Carroll was a panic buy by Liverpool in the truest sense of the term following the shock departure of Fernando Torres.
Carroll had a modest stint with Newcastle, helping the club win promotion to the Premier League, before the shock move to Anfield.
Unsurprisingly, the move turned out to be a £35 million disaster, as Carroll scored just six times in 44 league games before West Ham arrived to end his misery.
The lanky striker was a misfit in Liverpool's passing style of football and struggled for chemistry with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez.
#6 Jonathan Woodgate to Real Madrid (2004)
Jonathan Woodgate's stint at Real Madrid was an unmitigated disaster.
Despite being injured at the time, the English centre-back was signed from Middlesbrough in the summer of 2004. But Woodgate took an entire year before making his Real Madrid debut, which turned out to be a disastrous one, much like his stint at the club.
He scored at the wrong end and then got sent off for two bookable offences in quick succession. After waiting 13 months for his first game, Woodgate lasted only 66 minutes on the field.
Though he did score at the right end later that season, Woodgate played only nine games for Real Madrid before he returned to English football.
He would later talk about his 'regret' at Real Madrid, saying:
“It was great! I loved it. Hadn’t played for a year. First game: red card and an own goal. It’s no problem. When I played, I played well. I played good games when I played, but I didn’t play enough. That’s my biggest regret. I always think about it. I was at the biggest team in the world and I couldn’t play every game.”
#5 Sol Campbell to Notts County (2009)
Two-time Premier League winner Sol Campbell decided to take a route less traversed to wind down his illustrious career.
After rejecting offers from a plethora of Premier League teams, Campbell signed up with fourth-division Notts County at the end of the 2008-09 season in a move that beggared belief.
Arriving on a lucrative £40,000-a-week contract - more than that of any League Two player at the time - Campbell asserted that he was not moving there for financial reasons.
However, after the club's jerseys and merchandise sales went through the roof with the news of the arrival of Campbell, the player only played one match.
Woefully short on match fitness, the decorated former Arsenal defender huffed and puffed his way around before terminating his contract by mutual consent a month later.
#4 Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United (2018)
Alexis Sanchez arrived at Manchester United to much fanfare in January 2018.
However, the Chilean player had a torrid time at Old Trafford after apparently leaving behind his scoring boots at Arsenal.
Tallying a meagre five goals and nine assists in 45 games in all competitions, Sanchez was a pale shadow of the player who lit up the Emirates Stadium with his energetic performances. The player's gargantuan wages also didn't help his cause, as the club faithful felt that Sanchez was not giving it his all despite earning the big bucks.
Sanchez's calamitous stint at Old Trafford came to an end in the summer of 2019 when he joined Inter Milan. He has fared slightly better for the Serie A league leaders, scoring nine goals and assisting 17 times in 60 games.
#3 Samuel Eto'o to Anzhi Makachkala (2011)
Samuel Eto'o was regarded as one of the world's best strikers when he plied his trade with the all-conquering Barcelona.
After winning the continental treble with the Blaugrana, Eto'o made a move to Inter Milan in 2009, where he repeated that feat, making him the only player to win successive continental trebles with two clubs.
However, a year later, the Cameroonian player decided to make a shock move to the little-known Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. Earning almost €10 million per year, Eto'o became the world's best-paid footballer.
Eto'o scored 36 times in 73 matches for Anzhi Makhachkala, but his Russian adventure did not last long, as a drastic cut in the club's budget forced a mass exodus of top players, including that of the Cameroonian.
To this day, Eto'o move to Makhachkala is considered one of the strangest transfers in the history of the game, as the player seemingly had the world at his feet at both Barcelona and Inter Milan.
#2 Carlos Tevez to Shanghai Shenhua (2016)
Carlos Tevez caused quite a stir when he landed at Chinese Super League team Shanghai Shenhua in 2016.
Arriving from Boca Juniors, Tevez reportedly earned gargantuan wages of $820,000 per week. But his Chinese adventure (read 'vacation') quickly turned out to be a nightmare.
Scoring just four goals in 20 games, Tevez infamously called his Chinese Super League stint a 'vacation'.
He said in this regard:
"When I landed in China, I realised that I wanted to go back to Boca, I was on vacation for seven months".
It was indeed a vacation made in heaven, with Tevez earning $10 million per goal.
#1 Bebe to Manchester United (2010)
Bebe's move to Manchester United in 2010 has to go down as one of the strangest transfers ever in the game's history.
Interestingly, it was the only 'blind' signing made by Sir Alex Ferguson during his legendary managerial career. The Scot apparently signed Bebe on the recommendation of his then-assistant Carlos Queiroz.
As for Bebe, it was a classic rags-to-riches story. After growing up in a homeless shelter in Portugal, Bebe went from €300/week to a £17,000/week player; the English club reportedly dished out a staggering £7 million for the services of a completely unknown entity.
Unsurprisingly, Bebe's Cinderella story unravelled pretty quickly. Despite scoring twice in seven games, he never started a match for Manchester United.
A decade after his Old Trafford adventure, Bebe is currently plying his trade at Spanish Second Division team Rayo Vallecano.
