5 strangest transfers in football history
The history of football is replete with player transfers, ranging from surprising to downright bizarre.
Players usually change football clubs for a plethora of reasons like incompatibility with a team's style of play, falling out with the manager, reduced game-time, low wages and better chances of winning trophies elsewhere, to name a few.
Five worst transfers in football history
While astute signings can be beneficial for football clubs both on the field and off it, certain player transfers simply do not make sense from a footballing or financial perspective.
On that note, let us have a look at five of the most perplexing transfers in football history.
#5 Jonathan Woodgate to Real Madrid (2004)
To say that Jonathan Woodgate had a nightmare stint at Real Madrid would be an understatement.
Woodgate wasn't a bad player by any stretch of the imagination. He made his name at Leeds United as a no-nonsense centre-back and also enjoyed success at Manchester United and Newcastle United to catch the attention of Spanish football giants Real Madrid.
Despite Woodgate's penchant to get injured, Real Madrid deemed the player good enough to join their ranks in the summer of 2004. Woodgate was actually injured when he arrived in the Spanish capital and did not make his full debut for the football club till exactly a year later.
When he did, it was a memorable one, but for all the wrong reasons. Woodgate scored a brilliant diving header in his first game against Athletic Bilbao, but it was past his own goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
Woodgate almost made amends by narrowly failing to connect with a David Beckham cross at the other end, but his enthusiasm to win over the sceptical Madrid faithful got the better of him.
Already on a yellow card for a foul on Carlos Gerpegui, Woodgate needlessly felled Joseba Etxeberria to receive his marching orders on the night. Nevertheless, Real Madrid won the game despite Woodgate's errors.
In his next game, Woodgate scored at the right end, but injuries severely restricted his appearances to just 14 all season before the centre-back left the Spanish football club to return to England.
#4 Sol Campbell to Notts County (2009)
Sol Campbell had a fairly successful playing career, winning two Premier League titles and scoring in the Champions League final for Arsenal.
However, the player decided to wind down his career down a route less traversed. The then 30-something Campbell apparently rejected a bevy of Premier League clubs and opted for a move that simply beggared belief.
At the end of the 2008-09 season, Campbell, who had mostly played in the Premier League, signed up with fourth division Notts County on a lucrative £40,000 a week wage - more than any League Two player earned in a year.
That was because Notts County were recently taken over by a wealthy consortium and had the financial muscle to land the likes of David Beckham and Roberto Carlos.
Even though the player claimed that the move was not for financial reasons, the club's jersey and merchandise sales skyrocketed because of the arrival of Campbell. However, the football player would take at least a month to make his much-awaited debut.
And when he did that, it turned out to be a brutal reality check. Campbell appeared woefully short of fitness and didn't play another game for the fourth division football club.
A month later, the player left the club by mutual consent.