DBasia.news – Barcelona succeeded to get Arturo Vidal from Bayern Munchen. Blaugrana hijacked the Chile player who once predicted to join Inter Milan.
Vidal was the second player hijacked by Barcelona in this summer transfer market. Previously, Barcelona got Malcom who about to join AS Roma.
In the transfer market, hijacking is not a new thing. It’s often done by the richer club. It’s often when a player is about to join his new club and signed the deal, but joined the other club in the last minute.
Here are 4 craziest hijacked transfer:
1.Chelsea vs Tottenham Hotspur of Willian (2013)
Tottenham Hotspur fans couldn’t be happier hearing the arrival of Willian fro Russia club, Anchi Makhachkala in 2013. But Spurs fans could only watch the player announced as Chelsea player.
At that time, Spurs spent much money from Gareth Bale’s transfer to Real Madrid. Yes, Spurs were brave to spend the money. Previously, they got Paulinho and Roberto Soldado with the high price tag.
Spurs paid £30M to get Willian, breaking their transfer fee record. Tottenham Hotspur won the competition with Liverpool who were also targeting Wilian.
The Brasilian player came from London after the medical review in Tottenham Hotspur home. The transfer seemed normal and Willian just needed to sign the contract to officially become Spurs player.
But out there, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich decided to get Willian as well. He called his close friend, Suleyman Kerimov, the owner of Anchi. As a result, Chelsea got Willian with a slightly higher price in just a few hours.
Tottenham chief Daniel Levy got awry with Chelsea’s act. He accused Chelsea did that to mess up the deal with Willian.
Willian said his decision to reject Spurs due to his dream with Chelsea. Along with Chelsea, Willian won the Premier League two times. While Tottenham used Willian’s budget to get Erik Lamela from Roma.
2.Chelsea vs Liverpool of Mohamed Salah (2014)
Mohamed Salah was the star of Liverpool last season. But actually, Liverpool almost got the Egyptian player in 2014.
Chelsea seemed to enjoy stealing the player in front of the rival. Not only hijacking Willian from Tottenham Hotspur, The Blues did the same thing after a year.
This time, Liverpool were the victim. In the January 2014 transfer market, Salah became the star due to his excellent performance with FC Basel in the 2012-2013 Europa League. The next season, Salah scored the goals twice in the Champions League. Salah became the star of Basel after defeating Chelsea both home and away.
Chelsea fell in love with Salah. At that time, The Blues had Oscar, Willian, Ramires, and Eden Hazard in the squad. But it didn’t stop Chelsea to approach Salah.
Chelsea’s interest getting intense after knowing that Salah and his agent talked intensively with Liverpool. During that time, the negotiation between Salah and Liverpool went difficult.
Knowing there was no deal between Liverpool and Salah, Chelsea caught the chance to enter and got the player. Salah’s agent revealed Liverpool’s hesitation was the reason why they accepted Chelsea’s offer.
Choosing Chelsea was a wrong step for Salah. He just played for 19 minutes before loaned to Fiorentina and AS Roma.
Liverpool eventually got Salah, the player who chose Chelsea over them 3,5 years ago. Salah paid his failure by performing brilliantly with The Reds.
3.Man City vs Chelsea of Robinho (2008)
Chelsea’s hobby to hijack player from the other clubs might be inspired by their failure to get Brasil star, Robinho, back in 200. The player almost joined Chelsea after leaving Real Madrid.
Succeeded in persuading Madrid to let him go, Robinho moved his step to Premier League. Naturally, Chelsea who had the money and targetting Robinho since long time ago became the main candidate. Robinho said he wanted to live in London.
Real Madrid gave the permission to Robinho flying to London discussing the contract with Chelsea. They couldn’t anticipate Manchester City silent move to get Robinho.
The Citizens who just got a fresh budget from the new owner from Abu Dhabi came in and bought Robinho with £32,5M. Later, it was known that Chelsea won’t pay the desired price tag.
What made it, even more, crazier, there was no one telling Robinho that he should go to Manchester instead of London. Spectacularly, during the media announcement, Robinho said he was happy that Real Madrid accept the offer from Chelsea. “Manchester, not Chelsea,” Robinho corrected his statement.
4.Chelsea vs Man United of John Obi Mikel (2005)
This might be the craziest and weirdest hijacked transfer of all time. Chelsea spectacularly stole John Obi Mikel from Manchester United.
The player posed in Manchester United jersey on a press conference before confirmed to join Chelsea.
What happened? Mikel started his career with Norwegian club Lyn Oslo was the most wanted young player at that time. In April 2005, when he was 18, Man United announced the deal with Lyn to have Mikel.
But, the negotiation wasn’t involving Mikel’s agent. It was between the club and player. That’s when the photo session conducted. But after that, Chelsea claimed that they got the deal from Mikel’s agent to recruit the player.
Mikel said that when announced as Man United player, he felt under pressure for not being accompanied by the agent. Mikel said he wanted to join Chelsea more.
Just as expected, the verbal war between two clubs entered the FIFA. The highest council of world football decided to return Mikel to his former club in Norwegia until the dispute settled.
Long story short, in 2016 Chelsea got Mikel though they had to pay compensation for Man United and Lyn.