As disappointing as it may seem to us football connoisseurs, the beautiful game is becoming tainted by finance. In football, money doesn’t talk, it bellows. It now seems to be more a case of what bonuses are up for grabs when a player signs for a new team, rather than what style of football they play or what the club’s historic values are.
To say loyalty is dead in football would be too direct, though, given that there are still a small handful of one-club wonders out there. Just look at Francesco Totti, who’s in his 25th year with boyhood side Roma.
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Over the years there have been many heroes like Totti but there too have been countless villains. These are players who are one week kissing the badge at the corner flag following a thirty-yard belter, only to put in a transfer request the next week following disagreements over a renewed contract.
These are the players who have swapped red for blue, white for red and back again. These are some of football’s most infamous traitors.
#10 Kenny Miller
A man untouched by fear it would seem, Kenny Miller will be forever renowned as the man with the audacity to switch across the Old Firm border TWICE. After having played for Rangers at the turn of the century, Miller moved to Wolves where he’d play out the most part of his career.
Five years after the transfer, the Scottish international made the move to Celtic, struggling to get the fans on his side following a red card in his first outing and nine games without a goal. Miller struggled to settle and moved on to Derby County at the end of the season.
His success in England was equally as minimal and Miller, under a year since he’d left Celtic, transferred to Rangers for a second spell in 2008. Tom Dunbar was the last individual to transfer between the two clubs twice, all the way back in the 1890s.
#9 Mario Götze
"He's leaving because he's Guardiola's favourite. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I can't make myself shorter and learn Spanish,” the words of the ever-hilarious character of Jürgen Klopp following Götze’s move to bitter rivals Bayern Munich.
Prior to Götze’s move, the two clubs had been tussling at the top for the ultimate authority in German football and a big part of the reason why Dortmund had attained such a position was due to Götze’s attacking prowess. The midfielder was the pinnacle of a youth development programme unmatched by any other club’s in Europe, but when he made the move to Munich, Dortmund’s decline began.
Many pundits were quick to point out that Götze had little to gain from a move to Munich; Dortmund were only marginally less successful, it was a move within the same league and Götze would undoubtedly get more game time at the Signal Iduna Park. Nonetheless, he made the move and fans were swept over with a great sense of confusion as well as seething anger.
#8 Robin van Persie
In hindsight, the transfer of Van Persie from Arsenal to Manchester United was one which was always going to happen. The Dutchman had been in emphatic form for the Gunners, doing practically everything he could to propel them to success with 30 league goals in his final season in North London.
He’d been with the club for eight years and wanted a taste of supreme success, so when United came coming, it really wasn’t as much of a shock as people make out that he joined up with Ferguson and company.
Manchester United and Arsenal have possibly the deepest rivalry in the Premier League and so it was perhaps the worst possible move Van Persie could’ve made. To worsen the anguish for the Gunners, it would take just a single season for the Dutchman to tast Premier League glory, with United lifting the title in the 2012/13 campaign.
Also Read: What if Robin Van Persie did not leave Arsenal for Manchester United
#7 Mo Johnston
Johnston stands out amongst these traitors for one reason in particular – his signing caused an uproar in the camps of both his former club AND the rivals he would sign for. The Glaswegian striker had a very successful three-year spell with Celtic in the mid-1980s, scoring 52 goals in 99 games, leading the club to Scottish League and Cup glory.
He would move to Nantes in 1987, claiming later that he would re-sign for Celtic when his deal with the French club expired. However, not only he did go back on his statement, but he went and signed for Rangers instead.
Supporters of Rangers were not happy either. Given the religious context of Celtic and Rangers’ rivalry, Rangers would never sign players who were openly Catholic, but they did so when they signed Johnston up on a deal.
In his first season though he would score an injury-time strike against his former club for Rangers to regain the support of some fans but his reputation at Celtic remained in tatters.
#6 Carlos Tevez
A word of advice to any young footballers planning to transfer to a rival team without causing a stir, don’t agree to plaster yourself across a billboard sporting your new rival side’s club colours. That’s exactly how Carlos Tevez approached his move to Manchester City after he opted for a move to the Citizens rather than making his two-year loan deal with Manchester United permanent.
The Argentine was adamant at the time that it was not an act of betrayal, stating, "If I play for Manchester City I don't think the United fans will feel I am a traitor. They have to remember that at least as far as I know I have been thrown out of the club and I have to study the best offers available."
Very true but given that United and City have one of the fiercest rivalries in the country and given that the deal came at a time when City were viewed purely as buying their way to success, I doubt such a claim would’ve calmed the anger of any United fans.
#5 Ashley Cole
Perhaps appropriately dubbed “cashley”, it was again a case of money being at the heart of this transfer. At the turn of the century, Arsene Wenger had entrusted faith in a young English left-back who would go on to be a key component of the side through their unbeaten 2003/04 season.
Two years later though and when a contract offering just (yeah just) £55,000 per week was put on the table, Cole was left fuming and quickly snapped up a £90,000 per week contract with Chelsea.
Cole went on to achieve great things with the Blues, including the UEFA Champions League in 2012, whilst Arsenal had to endure countless trophyless seasons which may have only fanned the flames of hatred felt by fans of the Gunners towards the former-England international.
#4 Emmanuel Adebayor
You’d be forgiven for thinking that loyalty and Adebayor are plainly mutually exclusive; the Togo international really has done his best to antagonise the Arsenal faithful over the years. After signing for the Gunners in 2006, Adebayor went on to score 62 goals for the side and was a hot property.
An internal fall-out resulted in Adebayor desiring a move away from the Emirates in 2008 though and he opted for financially blossoming Manchester City.
There wasn’t a tremendous deal of hatred between the player and his former admirers at this point though, that is until he scored against the Gunners the following season. A lengthy celebration following the goal saw the forward sprint the entire length of the pitch to slide onto his knees in front of the travelling Arsenal supporters.
Things were hurled, chants were chanted and the dislike had reached boiling point, or had it? After an unsuccessful loan spell with Real Madrid, Adebayor eventually left Manchester City for Arsenal’s bitter rivals Tottenham – now that’s proper traitor material.
Watch here: Adebayor did this to make every Arsenal fan hate him
#3 Fernando Torres
In an interview last summer, the Spaniard expressed his vehemence at having been portrayed as a traitor by Liverpool claiming that, at the time, "Liverpool could not admit they were doing something wrong with the whole team. They had to find a guilty one."
It seems by that reckoning the Atletico forward was forced out of the club but that certainly doesn’t remove an ounce of bitterness from the transfer on Liverpool’s part.
Torres had enjoyed years of personal success with the Reds having scored 65 goals in 102 games for the club, but would face a verbal undressing from the Liverpool faithful when he switched life on Merseyside for a shot at glory in South London in 2011, when Chelsea secured the Spaniard for a then record fee of £50 million.
The two clubs may not be direct, local rivals, but with both top teams in the Premier Division, it has nonetheless been viewed as the move of a traitor.
#2 Sol Campbell
The first ever African American captain to lift a trophy at Wembley in 1999, Sol Campbell had an exceptional, mutually-beneficial relationship with Tottenham Hotspur in the mid-1990s, anchoring down a defence, enough to keep them afloat in England’s top flight, but receiving the captaincy and great critical acclaim as a result.
Things were all peaches and cream that is until Campbell rustled feathers by refusing a contract put forward by Tottenham in the summer of 2001. Clubs from all across the continent came calling, including the likes of Barcelona and money-laden Chelsea, but Spurs fans’ concerns would not be limited to the fact they would be losing their captain –they’d be losing him to bitter rivals Arsenal.
To rub salt into the wounds, the deal was a free transfer, given that Campbell’s deal with Tottenham had expired. Campbell spoke of how David Dein influenced him to join the Gunners, with the Arsenal vice-chairman at the time rumoured to have said, “come to us and you will be part of our family. We will protect you.” Protection would’ve certainly been a priority of Campbell’s following this move.
#1 Luis Figo
The Portuguese’s transfer between the two participants of El Clasico was the ultimate example of finance plaguing the beautiful game. Anger and hatred towards Figo resonated so much within the Barcelona faithful that there was seldom a game at the Nou Camp where Figo wasn’t the target of countless crowd missiles; one instance involved the hurling of a severed pig’s head at the midfielder as he prepared to take a corner.
Figo had everything at the Catalan club. He won two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, but beyond that his reputation was infallible, he was adored and very much the golden boy of his generation.
All that came crashing down in 2000 though when Florentino Perez would inaugurate the Galacticos era by triggering Figo’s release clause of £37.5 million at the time. The Portuguese transferred from Barcelona to Real Madrid and whilst his new side rejoiced, his old club had nothing but scathing remarks regarding his decision.
Joan Gaspart, recently appointed Barcelona president at the time, had promised to keep Figo should he be elected, and was angered by his decision to go back on what he had said. “I’ll not forget this,” he announced. “Figo gave me the impression this morning that he wanted to do two things - make more money and stay with Barcelona. He thinks money can do everything in this life.”
One thing he will certainly never do is appease the angered Barcelona contingent.
Also Read: Luis Figo blames lack of 'recognition' at Barcelona as reason for joining Real Madrid
