10) Cesc Fabregas
Arsenal - Barcelona (2010)
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 onto their man...for now. 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 €40m. Mourinho played hard ball with his old club and urged
Moratti to get out his cheque book before a deal was finally done
for a fee of €18.6m, 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. 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 latterly Manchester City
for £40m since then. Chelsea were best placed and 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.
"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," he said in December 2009.
Villa joined Barcelona for €40m prior to Spain's victory in the
World Cup.
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 or nothing."
It was claimed a deal was done for Ribery to do one more season - a
la Ronaldo - and join in 2010. He won't be going anywhere until at
least 2015, 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 too
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. Turned out 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 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 for some
steel to add to their superstar line-up. In 2004 the deal finally
looked like being done, with Arsenal accepting a £30m fee for their
captain. Vieira pulled out at the last minute after it emerged he
wouldn't be on a Galactico level salary. Eventually left 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 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 sage
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 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 TV 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 U-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 join Chelsea
instead.
FIFA were forced to get involved and the transfer looked to be
going down the legal route. Chelsea avoided this 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.