Mudryk, Ronaldo & 11 transfers that got hijacked at last minute

FT Desk

• Updated: 11 Nov 2024 14:00 CST
• 9 min read

Football transfers can be a very complicated business, as we can see every transfer window when several clubs chase one player.

While all fans see are the rumours, the confirmation of the deals, the reported transfer fee and the reported wages, there are dozens of factors that need to be addressed for a deal to happen behind the scenes.

While one club attempts to get a deal over the line, another club could be waiting in the wings to pounce and make an eleventh-hour bid.

Here are 13 occasions when a transfer deal was hijacked.

FOOTBALLTRANSFERS' MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS IN THE WORLD

Moises Caicedo: Wanted by Liverpool, signed by Chelsea (2023)

Chelsea shattered the Premier League spending record twice in 2023, first signing Enzo Fernandez for €121 million from Benfica in January and then Brighton's Moises Caicedo for up to €133m in the summer.

The Ecuador international, however, could easily have ended up at Liverpool instead. Chelsea, who had made a habit of signing players - and coaches - from Brighton, spent ages negotiating with the Seagulls.

Perhaps fed up with the Blues, Brighton looked set to swiftly accept Liverpool's offer when they decided to come calling, allowing the Reds to complete an unexpected hijack.

Ultimately, however, Caicedo, who had been courted by Chelsea for months, decided to honour the agreement he had with the London club and shockingly rejected Liverpool to force through a move to Stamford Bridge, with the Blues re-hijacking the deal.

Bizarrely, that same summer, the two clubs had also battled for the signature of Southampton's Romeo Lavia - also a defensive midfielder - and the outcome was the same, with the player forcing through a move to Chelsea over Liverpool.

Mykhailo Mudryk: Wanted by Arsenal, signed by Chelsea (2023)

Shakhtar Donetsk winger Mykhailo Mudryk was one of the hottest commodities in European football in late 2022 and it looked for all the world as though the Ukrainian would make a sensational move to Arsenal.

The Gunners had been courting Mudryk for months and even agreed a deal with Shakhtar, but in a shocking twist, the attacker ultimately ended up at London rivals Chelsea.

“The [Arsenal] offer was the same," Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin later revealed. "It was the same figure: the fixed part, the variable part and the bonuses were the same. But if you look inside the fixed part and the bonuses, it was completely different.

“Different time of payments, different kind of bonuses. You can talk about bonuses but these bonuses should somehow be achievable and realistic. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and concrete and fair in some points."

In hindsight, however, it was still Arsenal who would get the better of Chelsea. While Mudryk, signed for up to €100 million, floundered at Stamford Bridge, the Gunners signed Leandro Trossard from Brighton for just €24m and he proved a much more successful acquisition.

Bremer: Wanted by Inter, signed by Juventus (2022)

This is a deal that infuriated Inter and all of their fans. Torino star Bremer agreed personal terms with Inter back in January 2022, with the Brazilian and his agent promising themselves to the Nerazzurri for the summer.

All Inter had to do was pay a rather cut-price fee for a player who was named Serie A Defender of the Year the previous season.

But Inter waited and waited and waited to close the deal - allowing Juventus to swoop in during the middle of July.

Bremer bailed on his agreement with Inter, presumably sick of waiting for them to sign him, and the Nerazzurri fans went berserk!

Luis Diaz: Wanted by Tottenham, signed by Liverpool (2022)

Tottenham and Antonio Conte were desperate for attacking reinforcements in the 2022 January transfer window and were hoping to strike a deal for Porto superstars Luis Diaz.

Liverpool would eventually gazump Spurs to a deal, though.

According to Journalist and Portuguese football expert Aaron Barton of Proxima Jornada, Tottenham's deal fell apart as Porto did not believe they would be able to guarantee add-ons that would bump up the player's price.

"Apparently Tottenham's objectives were a lot more difficult to reach than Liverpool's. So the €15m add-ons for Liverpool are pretty much guaranteed in terms of what these add-ons are for, they are relatively easy to meet," he said.

Cristiano Ronaldo: Wanted by Man City, signed by Man Utd (2021)

In the summer of 2021, Cristiano Ronaldo completed a sensational return to Manchester United.

The Portuguese superstar made clear his intention to leave Juventus, with a return to the Premier League on the cards.

Manchester City initially appeared as the more likely destination, but upon hearing of his availability, Manchester United quickly pounced to bring him back to Old Trafford.

Man Utd wanted to sign Ronaldo not only for success on the pitch, naturally, but also to avoid the PR disaster of having one of their greatest-ever players join rivals Man City.

Georginio Wijnaldum: Wanted by Barcelona, signed by PSG (2021)

Barcelona were shopping in the free transfer market in the summer of 2021 as they brought in Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia on Bosman deals.

One deal they thought that they had concluded was another for Georginio Wijnaldum, who had left Liverpool as a free agent.

He would subsequently be attracted to the riches of PSG, who offered him a much, much bigger contract.

Wijnaldum’s move to PSG proved a nightmare, leaving everyone involved doubtless wishing that he had instead gone to Barcelona.

Malcom: Wanted by Roma, signed by Barcelona (2018)

In 2018 Barcelona undertook one of their famous spending sprees, laying out over €146 million on new recruits, including Bordeaux winger Malcom.

The outlay on the Brazilian was in excess of €40m, which was their most expensive acquisition of the window, and it is safe to say that move didn’t work out for anyone apart from the selling club, Bordeaux.

Barca were left cursing their luck as Malcom was actually destined to sign for Roma before deciding to change his mind at the last minute and move to Spain.

Roma fans were actually waiting for Malcom to arrive at the airport in the Italian capital only to be left disappointed. Director of football Monchi even threatened to sue Barcelona and Bordeaux over the failed deal.

Alexis Sanchez: Wanted by Man City, signed by Man Utd (2018)

Very few Manchester United fans will look back on Alexis Sanchez’s time at the club as anything but a complete waste of money and it may be even harder to stomach such a move in the knowledge that Manchester City almost made the same mistake before them.

Six months before Sanchez eventually made the move to Old Trafford, Man City manager Pep Guardiola was desperate to sign the player but a deal couldn’t be arranged in time. According to the club president at the time, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, City went back in for Sanchez that January but were scared off by the player’s huge salary demands.

“We looked at it again in January, but the situation had changed for us compared to how we looked at it in the summer,” said Al Mubarak in an interview with the Manchester Evening News.

“The reality is that the economics simply didn’t work for us any more. If it makes sense for us, we’ll do it. If it doesn’t make sense, we are perfectly comfortable walking away.”

Jorginho: Wanted by Man City, signed by Chelsea (2018)

Chelsea fans couldn’t have asked for more from Jorginho after he joined the club, helping the Premier League side win the Champions League in 2021. But the Italy international could have so easily been playing for Chelsea’s opponents in the final that May, having come so close to joining Man City.

“I wasn’t supposed to come to Chelsea, man,” revealed the midfielder in an interview with Brazilian pundit Ale Oliveira late last year.

“I was supposed to have arrived at another club. Another English club. But it’s not a secret. If you put it on the internet, you find it. It’s Manchester City.

“And then it happened as it happened and I arrived at Chelsea, which also, hey, with history, that’s Chelsea, right, man. So with Chelsea everything happened very fast. When I saw it, I was already in London and I said ‘let’s go’.”

John Obi Mikel: Wanted by Man Utd, signed by Chelsea (2006)

In April of 2005, Manchester United announced the signing of John Obi Mikel from Norwegian outfit Lyn. The problem was Chelsea themselves subsequently claimed that they already had an agreement in place to sign Mikel, and that the Red Devils completed the deal without the player's agents involved.

During a game in Norway, Mikel disappeared which led to Man Utd assistant manager Carlos Quieroz of accusing Chelsea of "kidnapping him".

Mikel was actually travelling to London, and he was eventually confirmed as a Chelsea player after impressing Jose Mourinho, but this came AFTER Mikel was officially presented as a Man Utd player in a hastily put together press conference.

Mikel was even pictured with a Man Utd top. After Man Utd lodged a complaint with FIFA over the deal, Chelsea agreed to pay United £12 million to settle the dispute.

Emmanuel Petit, wanted by Tottenham, signed by Arsenal(1997)

Few players define Arsenal’s success during the nineties quite as well as Emmanuel Petit, but the French midfielder very nearly made the move to the club’s North London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur instead.

According to the former France international, Petit was in London to speak to Tottenham about a move away from Monaco. However, when Arsenal caught wind of the move, they asked Petit to hold off on signing anything until he had spoken to Arsene Wenger.

Having worked with Wenger at Monaco, Petit was then convinced that his future instead lied with the red half of North London.

“It was the first time I met David Dein and Tottenham paid for the cab to help me sign for Arsenal,” he said in 2018. “It’s part of the legend now.

“I knew the rivalry but not how big it was. David Dein still loves that story – and [more than] 20 years later he’s still telling it!”

Paul Gascoigne: Wanted by Man Utd, signed by Tottenham (1988)

Legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has continually said that one of his major regrets as boss of the Red Devils was the failure to sign maverick midfielder Paul Gascoigne.

In 1988, Man Utd thought they had secured a deal to sign Gazza from Newcastle, but it would be Tottenham who won the race to sign him.

According to Ferguson, Spurs sweetened the deal by offering to buy Gazza's mother and father a new family home.

Gazza disputes this, saying he bought the house with his signing-on fee.

Either way, Man Utd, and Ferguson, were left furious at his change of heart.

Alfredo Di Stefano: Wanted by Barcelona, signed by Real Madrid (1953)

After touring Spain and the rest of the world with his Colombian side, Millonarios, Alfredo Di Stefano was the subject of a bidding war between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The battle between the two clubs got so fierce and complicated that FIFA had to appoint a mediator to decide, which led to each club buying 50% of Di Stefano’s rights and the player playing for one and then the other club on alternative seasons.

However, after a few poor appearances in Spain with Barca, the Catalan side decided to instead cash in on the striker and Madrid 5.5 million Spanish pesetas for the transfer of who would go on to become one of the club’s and European football’s most decorated players.