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An increasingly important part of the transfer process is the announcement of a new player's arrival. Social media has become essential for clubs around the world as a way to connect with their fanbase and keep them updated on all the news, transfers, and goings-on from within the team.
During the summer and winter transfer windows, fans are desperate to know if a deal has been completed for a new player and keep a close eye on their clubs' Twitter, Instagram or Facebook pages for news of the latest signing.
More often than not, the social media department puts a lot of effort into the announcement of a done deal. Rather than a simple message to state that a transfer has been completed, clubs create videos, montages, and even hire magicians to tell the world about a new player.
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The idea of announcing players in this manner has spread rapidly, leading to competition between clubs to release the best and most entertaining videos on social media. While many get it right, striking the balance between funny and entertaining perfectly, some get it horribly wrong.
Over the last few transfer windows, we have witnessed some seriously cringe-worthy transfer announcement videos. Below, we take a look at the 15 most bizarre new player arrival videos of all time.
#15 Spurs Announce Georges-Kevin Nkoudou
This is a lot of effort to go through just to announce the signing of a relatively unknown French winger. Back in the summer of 2016, Spurs secured the signature of Georges-Kevin Nkoudou from Marseille for €11 million. Aged 21 at the time, few people had heard of Nkoudou and maybe that was the thinking behind this announcement video.
The Frenchman played just one minute for Spurs before joining Burnley on loan in January of this year where he played just eight times. Maybe the Spurs social media department were slightly overzealous when making this video.
#14 Aston Villa Announce John Terry
Whatsapp is famously used by football players, managers, and agents due to its secured end-to-end encryption. However, when Aston Villa announced the arrival of John Terry in 2017, their ridiculous announcement videos is certainly one of the most bizarre in recent memory.
The video shows Villa owner, Dr. Tony Xia teasing manager, Steve Bruce about the arrival of a new player. Eventually, Terry is added to the group, imaginatively named "Villa", and is welcomed to the club by a number of players via the messaging service.
#13 Man United Announce Alexis Sanchez
In January of this year, Man United captures the signature of Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal in what was quite a coup for the Red Devils. Despite the deal having apparently been completed for a few days, there was no announcement made on United's social media accounts. Then, the video above popped up.
Apparently, the delay in announcing the arrival of Sanchez was so he could learn to play 'Glory, Glory, Man United" on the piano. The video clearly has a high production value, but the question remains - was it absolutely necessary?
#12 Man United/Addidas Announce Paul Pogba
Another entry for Man United, although not strictly from their official account. When Pogba returned to Old Trafford for a world record transfer in 2016, it was the talk of social media for weeks.
Addidas jumped at the chance to create an announcement video and teamed the French midfielder up with rapper, Stormzy to simultaneously announce Pogba's transfer and promote Stormzy's new hit. I guess it was exciting for fans of both United and the London-based rapper, but a bit over the top for many others.
#11 Roma Announce Aleksandar Kolarov
A slight twist on the genre occurred last summer when Roma captured Aleksander Kolarov from Man City. The video shows a public relations advisor from Roma trying to convince the Serbian defender to engage in an over the top production to announce his arrival in Italy.
However, Kolarov is having none of it and just stands there stone-faced throughout the video. The series of emojis accompanying the video provide a hint at what was proposed. The idea of a kidnapping was central to the plot and while Kolarov didn't participate, our next entry was more than happy to play along...
#10 Sevilla Announce Jesus Navas
Another former Man City player, another bizarre 2017 announcement video. Jesus Navas left the Ethiad to return to Spain as a free agent last year and was part of an elaborate and crazy announcement video.
The tweet proudly announces that Jesus Navas is "ours!!" and shows the Spaniard being stalked before two kidnappers shove him in a car. The car pulls into the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium and Navas, looking dazed, emerges onto the pitch to triumphantly show he signed for Sevilla.
#9 Crystal Palace Announce Frank de Boer
Not a player announcement, but rather a new managerial appointment, this video might have seemed like a good idea in theory but is truly awful in execution. The video plays on the Vatican's announcement of a new Pope - by billowing white smoke from a chimney.
However, the shop used in the video to announce the arrival of de Boer - the Original Tasty Jerky - is an odd choice of place for the video. It is a local shop near Selhurst Park but that is not common knowledge to anyone who resides more than a few kilometers away from the ground. In the end, de Boer lasted only four matches before getting sacked.
#8 Roma Announce Patrik Schick
The social media team at Roma are gaining quite a reputation for their announcement videos, but this one is just a mess. Lasting almost one full minute, the video just throws as many popular memes together as possible in a seemingly random combination.
Having watched this video a few times, I still have no idea what it's supposed to mean. Perhaps the order of the memes is supposed to represent a message for people who closely follow internet culture. Regardless, the team at Roma certainly enjoy player announcements more than most.
#7 Barcelona Announce Artur
Honestly, what is this supposed to represent? Barcelona is one of the biggest clubs in the world and upon their signature of Arthur this summer they decided to create the above video as a welcome for the Brazilian.
Rather than going all out with a fancy montage or some kind of high drama kidnapping, the team at Barcelona thought that a talking football yapping about the history of the club was the best way to go. Really one of the more bizarre transfer announcements of this summer.
#6 Vancouver Whitecaps Announce Marcel de Jong and David Edgar
Back in the summer of 2016, Pokemon Go had become a phenomenon. People all over the world were glued to their phones trying to catch Pokemon characters in their local area. The social media team at Vancouver Whitecaps wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the app and created the video above.
Perhaps quite in trend at the time of release, this video looks ridiculous today. Showing both Marcel de Jong and David Edgar as still images against a random background, the Whitecaps "capture" both players with Pokeballs.
#5 Stoke City Announce Joshua Tymon
This could easily be the most cringe-worthy player announcement on the list. In 2017, Stoke signed Joshua Tymon from Hull City. They decided the best way to announce his arrival to the fans was this video. In the clip, the camera shows somebody writing "Sign Someone Stoke!!" on their Twitter account.
As the camera pans out it shows Symon sitting in the chair, fully kitted out in Stoke gear. Two things to note about this video. Firstly, that thumbs up is beyond awkward. Secondly. check out the Wikipedia tab on the computer. Maybe he forgot his name due to all the excitement of signing for Stoke?
#4 Besiktas Announce Pepe and Alvaro Negredo
Like the lowest of low budget movies, the announcement of Pepe and Alvaro Negredo's arrival to Besiktas in 2017 was full of awful techno music and awkward acting. The "Come to Besiktas" line was used to show the Turkish club had captured Pepe on a free transfer before the former Real Madrid player told Alvaro Negredo to "Come to Besiktas".
The video has been viewed almost 4.5 million times so it certainly had the desired effect. However, the production quality is so bad it is almost funny.
#3 Liverpool Announce Mo Salah
Another video that makes players look incredibly awkward in front of the camera is Liverpool's announcement of Mo Salah in 2017. The clip shows someone scrolling through Twitter using the search query "Announce Salah Now". The thumbs on-screen scroll through hundreds of tweets from fans anticipating the arrival of the Egyptian from Roma.
As the camera pans out we see it was Salah himself scrolling through the tweets. The winger awkwardly smiles at the camera and says "Salah Announced". If the Liverpool media department had anticipated his incredible form for Liverpool, perhaps they would have put more effort into the announcement video.
#2 Chelsea Announce Antonio Rudiger
This announcement of Rudiger by Chelsea in 2017 covers all levels of embarrassment. From the kid asking for the name of the German on the back of his jersey instead of Hazard (unlikely) to the cashier popping into the back to find Rudiger kitted out and trying so hard to look cool, this video is genuinely cringe-worthy.
The poor acting from all participants throughout the clip doesn't help matters either. For a whole season, this has been one of the most bizarre and embarrassing announcement videos on social media. However, it has been knocked off the top spot by the next announcement...
#1 Villarreal Announce Santi Cazorla
Let's start by saying at least the idea is original. However, that's about as much praise as we can give Villarreal for their announcement of Santi Cazorla a couple of days ago. The Spanish club went to the effort of hiring a magician for the clip which features no drama whatsoever considering the whole world already knew about Cazorla's return to Spain.
Plumes of smoke, dramatic music, a magician dancing around a covered transparent tube - this video is the epitome of what bizarre announcement videos are all about. A fully kitted out Cazorla emerges from the tube to the polite applause of the audience in the climax of the clip. Certainly an announcement worthy of the number one spot.
Did we miss any bizarre player announcements? Let us know in the comments below.
