Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter
The January transfer window threatened to take an unusual turn this weekend with the news that Wolverhampton Wanderers are now in ‘pole position’ to sign Thomas Lemar from Atlético Madrid.
Lemar cost Atlético £51m in the summer of 2018 – that’s over £20m more than Wolves paid for their record signing, Raúl Jiménez – but the France World Cup winner has failed to impress at the Wanda Metropolitano. The forward has scored just four goals in 64 appearances for the Spanish side, failing to hit the target this season. Yet that hasn’t put off the likes of Arsenal , Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur – all of whom have been linked to Lemar at various points over the last few months.
However, a report in The Sun
An equally curious piece of transfer news followed on Monday, as our Chief Football Writer Miguel Delaney reported that José Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur have this month discussed a move for Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke – despite the fact the Belgian has scored just four goals in the last two seasons.
But the Premier League has seen even stranger signings than Lemar moving to Wolves or Spurs snapping up Benteke. Here are some of the strangest transfers in football history: including World Cup winners, Argentine double acts and not one but two cases of mistaken identity.
Show all 31 1 /31The weirdest football transfers The weirdest football transfers Football's weirdest transfers Following the news that Wolverhampton Wanderers could sign Atlético Madrid’s £60m man Thomas Lemar, we take a look at some of the most surprising transfers in football history.
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Ricardo Villa and Ossie Ardiles to Tottenham Ossie and Ricky became cult heroes when they signed from Huracán and Racing Club respectively. Were forced out on loan when the pesky Falklands War broke out, but later returned, both writing themselves into club legend.
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Roberto Mancini to Leicester City Left Lazio for a brief – very brief – stint at Leicester in the early 2000s. Made his Premier League debut against Arsenal at the age of 36 but failed to finish the match. He would make just three further appearances before disappearing home.
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Louie Barry to Barcelona Poached by Barcelona from West Brom, the English teenager is now on the verge of returning to the Midlands, with Aston Villa.
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Gennaro Gattuso to Rangers Bravely left Perugia for Rangers at the tender age of 19. Was met with quite the welcome. “Paul Gascoigne was obviously famous for his many pranks,” he later recalled. “For example, he welcomed me to Rangers by doing his business in my socks.”
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Julien Faubert to Real Madrid Sensationally loaned from West Ham to Real Madrid in January 2009. “His agent should be knighted by the Queen,” said Paul Merson. Things didn’t go that well and Real decided not to make his loan permanent after he fell asleep on the substitutes’ bench.
AFP via Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Steven Caulker to Liverpool Caulker’s loan move from QPR to Liverpool was weird. Weirder still was Jurgen Klopp’s subsequent decision to deploy him as an auxiliary striker.
AFP via Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Alejandro Sabella to Sheffield United In 1978 Sheffield United rather ambitiously attempted to sign some kid called Diego Maradona. Whatever happened to him? However they decided he was too expensive and instead signed Sabella for a cut-price £160k.
AFP via Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tévez to West Ham United Another Argentine duo who rocked up in London, much to everybody’s surprise. Helped to save West Ham from relegation – in rather dubious fashion – and went on to even bigger and better things: Mascherano playing for Liverpool and Barcelona and Tevez crossing the Manchester divide.
PA
The weirdest football transfers Juninho to Middlesbrough Had the pick of several clubs when he left São Paulo in 1995. Plumped for Middlesbrough and liked it so much that he later returned. Twice.
The weirdest football transfers Jay Jay Okocha to Bolton So good they named him twice. Left PSG for the bright lights of Bolton, steering the team away from relegation and scoring the team’s best ever Premier League goal, as voted for by fans. Later stripped of the Bolton captaincy for publicly flirting with Qatar SC, where he eventually moved.
The weirdest football transfers Fernando Hierro to Bolton Another international superstar who rather bizarrely ended up at Bolton. A regular at the back in the 2004/05 season, having left Real Madrid via Al Rayyan in the Qatar Stars League.
The weirdest football transfers Attilio Lombardo to Palace Il Struzzo left Juventus to join recently promoted Crystal Palace in 1997, immediately becoming their star player and, a little later, their caretaker player-manager.
The weirdest football transfers Joey Barton to Marseille Attempted to repair his bad boy reputation by disappearing to Marseille on loan while at QPR, in a stint best remembered for his amusing habit of speaking to journalists in English with a rather Allo’ Allo’ French accent.
EPA
The weirdest football transfers Julio Cesar to QPR Jumped on board the QPR gravy train in 2012. Jumped straight off when they were relegated a few months later, moving to Toronto on loan.
The weirdest football transfers Edgar Davids to … every English club Moved to Martin Jol’s Tottenham Hotspur from Internazionale and liked England so much he went on to play for Crystal Palace and Barnet, even briefly managing the latter.
PA
The weirdest football transfers Bojan Krcic to Stoke City The ‘next Lionel Messi’ failed to make the grade at Barcelona and enjoyed glamorous stints at Roma and AC Milan before signing for … Stoke City. Played 85 times for the Potters in the Premier League and Championship, eventually departing for Montreal Impact. Still only 29!
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Luther Blissett to AC Milan Moved to AC Milan from Watford for £1m in 1983. Remarkably, Milan thought they were signing team-mate John Barnes instead. His time in Italy will be forever remembered for the immortal line: “No matter how much money you have here, you just cannot seem to get Rice Krispies.”
Hulton Archive
The weirdest football transfers Claudio Caniggia to Dundee Caniggia had won the World Cup, Copa America and Copa Libertadores before moving to Dundee, in 2000. Did so well he then earnt himself a move to Rangers.
The weirdest football transfers Esteban Cambiasso to Leicester Played over 300 times for Internazionale before then deciding to join Leicester on a free transfer. Adored by the club’s supporters, he was offered a one-year contract extension only to decline the offer in favour of a move to Olympiacos. A season later, Leicester won the Premier League title. Doh!
REUTERS
The weirdest football transfers Bebe to Manchester United One of the strangest transfers in football history. Signed from Vitória de Guimarães for £7m – despite Sir Alex Ferguson admitting he had never watched the midfielder play.
AFP/Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Kevin-Prince Boateng to Barcelona Boateng, the former Tottenham, Portsmouth and Las Palmas midfielder, rather randomly ended up at Barcelona on loan from Sassuolo in 2019. Played just three times.
AFP/Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Thomas Gravesen to Madrid Left Everton for a cut-price £2.5m in 2005. Signed for Real Madrid, where he was played out of position and had a fight with Robinho.
The weirdest football transfers Christophe Dugarry to Birmingham Joined Birmingham from Bordeaux, initially on loan, in 2003. Somewhat incredibly, he was not the first World Cup-winner to join the Blues. That honour goes to Argentina’s Alberin to Tarantini, in 1978.
The weirdest football transfers Henrik Larsson to Manchester United Pitched up at Manchester United on loan from Helsingborg for a short and very sweet stint in 2007.
PA
The weirdest football transfers Jay Bothroyd to Perugia After keeping Coventry up a move to Serie A beckoned for Bothroyd and seven goals in 39 games made it a decent return. A friendship with Colonel Gaddafi's son followed. Yes, really.
AFP via Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Yildiray Basturk to Blackburn Rovers No one really expected the Champions League runner-up to rock up at Ewood Park to finish his career. It didn't go as planned with the Turk playing only 45 minutes of his one and only appearance.
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Nicklas Bendtner to Juventus No one really knows why but Bendtner swapped London for Turin in 2012/13 and made only two starts for the Bianconeri.
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Kyle Lafferty to Palermo Lafferty is no stranger to a random move or three but his stint with Palermo in Serie A surely takes the cake. Being described by their club president as "an Irishman without rules" probably sums it up
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Papy Djilobodji to Chelsea The central defender played just 62 seconds of first-team football for Chelsea after inexplicably moving from Nantes for £4m in the summer of 2015
Getty Images
The weirdest football transfers Ali Dia to Southampton The most infamous and the best. Dia managed to convince Southampton boss Graeme Souness that he was the cousin of FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or winner George Weah. That was good enough reason for Souness to hand him his Premier League debut against Leeds when he came on for the injured Matthew Le Tissier, although he was predictably dreadful and hooked in the second-half. "He ran around the pitch like Bambi on ice; it was very embarrassing to watch," said Le Tissier. Dia never played for Southampton again, although did enjoy spells at both Gateshead (eight appearances, two goals) and Spennymoor United (who knows).
YouTube
For all the latest news from the January transfer window, click here.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies