Top 10 Transfer sagas

Transfer storys that could have been-

Read Goal.com's impressive Cesc Fabregas Arsenal to Barcelona timeline and it stretches to a mighty 4,608 words. That's before you even read any of the 100 plus stories! Arsenal's captain returning back to Barca resulted in several forests being felled to print all the news. Despite being pictured in a Barcelona shirt and making it abundantly clear he wanted to go back to Spain, the Gunners have managed to hold on to their man... for now at least. Prepare yourself for another instalment next year. Yawn.

9) Ricardo Quaresma
Porto - Inter (2008)

Having fallen out with Frank Rijkaard, Quaresma rebuilt his reputation at Porto when Jose Mourinho came calling in 2008. Inter's then new manager was shot down by his president Massimo Moratti, who said: "We don't need Quaresma". It didn't help that Porto were looking for silly money for the winger, believed to be around £40 million (£33m).

Mourinho played hard ball with his old employers and urged Moratti to get out his cheque book before a deal was finally done for a fee of ~18.6m (£15.5m), with young Inter player Pele moving in the opposite direction.

Inter fans were left wondering what all the fuss was about as Quaresma failed to make an impression at the San Siro, then went on loan to Chelsea, where he flopped, and has since moved to Besiktas.

8) David Villa
Valencia - Various (2008, 2009)

Along with the old chestnut of retired genius Zinedine Zidane moving to the MLS despite hanging up his boots in 2006, the prospect of Villa leaving the Mestalla has been mooted heavily for at least the past two years.

Linked with Chelsea as long as three years ago, Villa was rumoured to be on the way to Manchester United, and more recently to Manchester City for £40m. Chelsea were best placed and reportedly offered Villa a salary of £10m a year, but the player was always keen to remain in Spain.

"I do not close the door to either Real Madrid or Barcelona," he said in December 2009. "I am 27-years-old and I do not know what will happen in my future.

"I have a contract with Valencia until I'm 32, but nobody knows what the future holds."

Villa joined Barcelona for £40m (£33m) prior to Spain's victory at World Cup 2010.

7) Franck Ribery
Bayern Munich - Real Madrid (2009)

Seemingly intent on buying every single attacking player in the world, Real Madrid set their sights on Bayern Munich playmaker Franck Ribery last summer. Endorsed by Zinedine Zidane, the Frenchman was tipped to follow in the footsteps of Kaka and Ronaldo by moving to the Bernabeu.

Desperate to leave the Allianz, Ribery told L'Equipe: "I have made up my mind, I want to leave. It will be Real [Madrid] or nothing."

It was claimed a deal was done for Ribery to do one more season in the Bundesliga - a la Ronaldo - and join in 2010. He won't be going anywhere until at least 2015 though, having signed a new contract with his current club last May.


6) Alfredo di Stefano
Barcelona - Real Madrid (1953)

Madrid legend Di Stefano initially moved to Spain to play for Barcelona after his Colombian club Millionarios accepted an offer from the Catalans. The Argentinian played a few friendly games for Barca but things got spicy when Real Madrid wanted the player to and offered money to Millionarios to get him.

A lengthy saga ensued, forcing the Spanish football authorities to get involved before the player made the move from Barcelona to Real Madrid in time for the new season. Read more about this controversial transfer in the top 10 transfers that never were.

5) Dani Alves
Sevilla - Chelsea (2007)

Chelsea fans awoke to news in August 2007 that the Blues had signed Alves for £30m (£25m). However, it didn't happen as Sevilla turned down two bids for their star full-back who made his feelings perfectly clear.

"I want to continue growing as a player and if that has to be somewhere else, then it will be somewhere else," Alves said at the time.

He was dismayed at being told he would have to remain at Sevilla and fell out with the club's president as his form suffered. Coach Juande Ramos was happy with the news but then jumped ship himself to London to coach Tottenham Hotspur a few months into the season. Alves moved to Barcelona in 2008 but has recently been linked with a transfer to Manchester City.

4) Patrick Vieira
Arsenal - Real Madrid (2002,2003,2004)

Much like picking up your tennis racket for two weeks during Wimbledon, the Vieira to Real Madrid story became an annual summer event. After getting shot of Vieira's French team-mate Claude Makelele to Chelsea, the Spanish outfit were desperate to add some steel to their superstar line-up.

In 2004 the deal finally looked like being completed, with Arsenal accepting a £30m fee for their captain. Vieira pulled out at the last minute though after it emerged he wouldn't be on a Galactico level salary. Eventually left the Gunners a year later for Juventus.

3) Rafael van der Vaart
Hamburg - Valencia (2007)

So confident was the Dutchman of joining Valencia that he was pictured holding the club shirt back in 2007. Hamburg weren't willing to let him go for the £14m (£11.6m) offered and the player went out of his way to make the move happen.

Van der Vaart pulled out of a European game for the German club claiming he had hurt himself - lifting his one-year-old son - so he wouldn't be cup-tied. The saga was dubbed 'Van der Farce' by the German press and the final straw was when the player invited journalists to his house to talk about his dream move so his Spanish grandparents could see him play in La Liga.

Hamburg remained firm though and the player was forced to stick it out for another year before joining Real Madrid. Apparently Van der Vaart's Hamburg team-mates gave him a Christmas present of a Valencia shirt with the name van der Verrat on it. Verrat being the German word for betrayal.

2) John Obi Mikel
Lyn Oslo/Manchester United - Chelsea (2006)

A controversial transfer involving agents, strange television interviews, death threats and the eventual payment of millions to a club which Mikel never kicked a ball for.

The player had been identified by Manchester United in 2003 after starring in the FIFA Under-17 World Youth Championships. He joined Norwegian side Lyn Oslo to enable him to get a work permit and was announced as a Manchester United player shortly afer his 18th birthday. Mikel wore a United shirt in the press conference, saying he was delighted to be joining the club.

Chelsea then intervened, claiming they had a deal with the player. In the meantime Mikel was the target of death threats in his native Nigeria and disappeared when he was meant to play a match for Lyn. He showed up in London and gave an interview saying he had been pressured into signing for United and wanted to join Chelsea instead.

FIFA were forced to get involved and the transfer looked to be going down the legal route. Chelsea avoided this though by paying Manchester United £12m, and Lyn £4m, to settle the saga. Former Lyn director Morgan Andersen was convicted of fraud for his part in the long running transfer.

1) Cristiano Ronaldo
Manchester United - Real Madrid (2008,2009)

This one was always going to happen once Ronaldo put himself in the Madrid shop window after a stunning 2007-08 season, when he scored 42 goals.

Desperate to join Los Blancos, the player, who was earning £120,000-a-week with Manchester United, compared himself to a modern day slave when the Red Devils dug their heels in and insisted he give them one more season.

The saga dominated the summer of 2008 until Ronaldo agreed to stay with the Red Devils for another campaign. The media went into collective mourning when Ronaldo joined Madrid early the following summer, ensuring there was no repeat of the previous year's saga.


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