5 of the craziest transfer hijacks in football history

#5 John Obi Mikel to Manchester United, hijacked by Chelsea in 2005

John Obi Mikel's move to Chelsea proved to be hugely controversial

Of all the transfer hijacks in football history, Chelsea’s gazumping of Manchester United for the services of John Obi Mikel back in 2005 might go down as the strangest, if only because Mikel had outright posed in a Manchester United shirt at a press conference prior to his actual move to Stamford Bridge. So what exactly happened?

To cut a long story short, Mikel had begun his career with Norwegian club Lyn Oslo, where he carved out a reputation as one of football’s hottest teenage prospects. And so in April 2005 – a few days after the player turned 18 – Manchester United announced that they’d agreed a deal with Lyn to sign the player – crucially, bypassing Mikel’s agents and dealing purely with the player and the club. The now-infamous press conference followed shortly after.

But then Chelsea claimed they’d struck a deal with Mikel’s agents to sign the player, and suddenly Mikel himself said he’d been pressured – without his agent present – to sign for United, and in reality, he preferred the move to Chelsea.

And so both clubs – as well as the agents involved – entered into a long verbal war that finally ended with Lyn lodging an official complaint with FIFA. They decided he should return to Norway while the situation was resolved, and finally, in 2006 Chelsea got their man – but had to pay compensation to both United and Lyn for the whole mess.