Top Ten: Football transfers that shocked the world

The transfer window in football is the most exciting time in the lives of players, managers, fans and football clubs alike. A sensational transfer or a link of a player from one club to another is a piece of news that all journalists around the world are waiting to pounce upon.

Besides the goals, the tricks, the skills, the legends, these are the deals that have defined the history of the beautiful game. They can make or break a player, a manager, a club, and everyone has their own intriguing back stories.

Let’s have a look at the top ten transfers that shocked the football world:

10) Mo Johnston

Rangers had not signed a Catholic player for over 100 years, until Mo Johnston crossed Glasgow’s subterranean divide.

Johnston was a former Celtic star, who had helped them to the double with his goals three years earlier, before he went to Nantes in France. The love for Scottish football, however, could not keep him for long in France for long, and after a spell with the French club, he came back at Parkhead, where he announced at a press conference to join Celtic again.

Back in Glasgow, however, at the last minute, Johnston signed for Rangers. He scored 46 goals in two years, and in the process, helped Rangers start a run of nine successive Scottish titles. Graeme Souness, the Rangers manager, had a vision for the future, and he didn’t let the religious or cultural barrier come in front of him to get his prized asset.

9) Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney had already become a Premier League sensation at the age of sixteen playing for Everton, before he announced himself on the world stage at Euro 2004 as England‘s youngest player. He was touted to be the next big thing in football.

On deadline day in 2004, the boy wonder got his reward when Manchester United broke the bank and paid a record 25.6 million for the England star, which was the highest ever fee paid for a player under twenty.

Sir Alex didn’t expect the fee to burden those young broad shoulders, but even he was shocked by this – United had granted Rooney his wish to play in Europe, and how he repaid it on his first appearance, his Champions league debut, with a hat-trick on a packed night at Old Trafford. A new star was born for the United faithful.

8) Socrates

It was probably one of the most laughable transfer rumours that came true.

Garforth Town, a football club from north Yorkshire playing in the tenth tier of English football had an owner, Simon Clifford, who ran several football schools based on Brazilian techniques.

And in 2004, when he announced that Socrates, the legendary captain of the great Brazil side of 1982 and 1986, would be playing for their club, the fans went berserk .

A record crowd of 1300, Garforth’s biggest in forty years, turned up to see their star signing. They waited until seventy minutes, before Socrates finally stood up amidst rapturous ovation to take on the field and rolled back the years. He had one shot, played twelve minutes, before complaining of a nasty headache. A brief but an unforgettable encounter.

7) Gianluigi Lentini

In 1992, Gigi Lentini became the world’s most expensive football player when Fabio Capello signed him for 13 million pounds for his formidable Milan side.

The young Italian became the final missing piece in Milan’s jigsaw, who were playing 4-4-2 at that time, and were in need of a flying winger who could at any time take on defenders with his pace and skills and start a move. He was a sensation at that time and was touted for greatness.

Moreover, to complement his football skills, he also had the looks which always kept him in the headlines amongst the paparazzi. The life in the fast lane, however, has its own mishaps – a year after signing for Milan, Lentini was involved in a serious car crash.

He emerged from the injuries and survived a coma, but he was never the same player again. The balance, the control, and the technique were completely gone. Due to that accident, he could never fulfil his potential, something that he had in bucketloads.

6) Alan Shearer

In August 1996, after the Toon Army had just witnessed their side throw away a huge 12-point lead at the summit of the top flight, Newcastle president John Hall, revitalised the hopes of the city when he signed a world record 15 million pound cheque.

After years of agony for the fans, who saw their stars being sold off, Newcastle had signed England’s number nine, their local boy from Gosforth, and one of the hottest strikers at that time, Alan Shearer.

Shearer had held talks with Manchester United too, but Keegan’s chat proved to be more persuasive, and rest is history.

5) Luis Figo

The ‘Galacticos’ era at Real Madrid was kicked off by the most controversial purchase of all – Luis Figo signed from Barcelona.

For a player to make a name for himself at Barcelona, and become a fan favourite, and then make a move to Real Madrid was impossible, but Figo’s contract had a buy-out clause. Real Madrid, using their usual financial power, found the world record 37 million pounds, and added further fuel to the unending fire between Catalonia and Spain.

As expected, he wasn’t exactly welcomed when he returned in the white of Real to play at the Camp Nou. The noise levels, the mosaics, the banners made the atmosphere, the hardest moment that a sportsman has ever had to endure. But he will tell you, two league titles and a Champions League win proved him right.

4) Carlos Tevez & Javier Mascherano

In 2006, post the World Cup, West Ham thought they had hit a jackpot when they signed two Argentine stars for nothing. The shock transfer, however, ended up costing them a fortune.

The quality of the players was never in doubt, except who owned them? The Hammers board were flummoxed by Kia Joorabchian, the brain behind the controversial double transfer from Corinthians, into believing that they had done the deal of the decade.

On the contrary, it emerged that West Ham had entered into a third party ownership agreement, which cost them 15 million pounds in compensation.

3) Fernando Torres

January 31st 2011 still remains the busiest day in English transfer history when 135 million pounds were spent on transfers. And 50 million of those were received by Liverpool as a British record fee for Fernando Torres – betrayal was the watchword.

The prodigal son of Liverpool, who was adored by the fans, had told the local Liverpool papers just a few weeks before about how he loved the club, the fans, and how he would like to spend his entire career there, until, Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea came calling and he changed his mind. It was the shock of the year.

2) Pele

In 1975, the North American Soccer League and Pele started a symbiotic relationship which proved to be mutually beneficial for both of them. The league needed some charisma; Pele, who has retired two years before, needed the money. “I come to play in America because I believe in soccer in America”, said Pele on his arrival at New York Cosmos.

The transfer could not have been completed without the efforts of Gerald Ford, then American president, who had to persuade the president of Brazil to give the deal his blessing.

Pele’s move persuaded other greats to live the American dream. Crowds peaked at eighty thousand. Cosmos won the title in Pele’s final season – the game of soccer had its Hollywood ending.

1) Cristiano Ronaldo

The 2008 Ballon d’Or winner became the latest football superstar to join Spanish giants from Manchester United in 2009.

He became the first ever 100 million pound man in the history of the beautiful game. A world record 80 million pounds were paid for his transfer, but his wages amounted to another forty million. It was an offer that United couldn’t refuse.

Ronaldo has since gone on to re-write history at Real Madrid scoring 201 goals in 199 appearances for the club as of date.