Most Controversial Transfers in History
Controversial football transfers don’t come around too often these days. The rumour mill works overtime to throw up unlikely deals between clubs and players – so much so that the football transfer odds can hardly keep up!
Down the years most players have learned not to cross certain red lines. Yet some of them have ignored the warning signs and have gone ahead with controversial switches nevertheless.
The increase in player power over the last three decades has meant more money is spent on transfers than ever before. But those rival-to-rival switches aren’t as common.
So, we’ve looked back into the annals of history to find eight of the most controversial transfers. Some broke the hearts of entire fanbases, some quit their club for money. One changed football transfers forever.
World’s Most Controversial Football Transfers
Here are the most controversial football transfers in world football…
8. Sol Campbell | Tottenham to Arsenal
Whisper it quietly. Tottenham and Arsenal don’t like each other much. Just four miles splits the two north London clubs and there’s not much love lost on match days.
So when Sol Campbell let his contract at Spurs run down and hot-footed it to Highbury in 2001 on a free transfer, the Tottenham supporters were far from pleased.
Spurs had been willing to make Campbell their highest-paid player. But the 26-year-old wanted Champions League football and saw Arsenal as the obvious choice. He would suffer horrendous abuse from Spurs fans for the rest of his career.
7. Ashley Cole | Arsenal to Chelsea
Not that Arsenal always get their own way with transfers. In 2006 Campbell's Gunners teammate Ashley Cole wanted to stay in north London but wasn't happy with the new contract Arsenal had offered him. "Trembling with anger" over a proposed £55,000-a-week salary, Cole looked for a new club and found Chelsea calling.
After a long drawn-out process Cole joined Chelsea for around £5m in the summer of 2006, having just helped Arsenal to the Champions League final months earlier.
The move signalled a change in football superiority in the capital. Cash-rich Chelsea paid Cole's £120,000 weekly wage demands and hoovered up trophies. The Gunners, shackled by the cost of their Emirates Stadium move, validated Cole's decision to leave by not winning another trophy until 2013.
6. Jean-Marc Bosman | RFC Liège to Unattached
When anyone talks about player power in football the discussion should always come back to Jean-Marc Bosman. In 1990 Bosman was coming to the end of his RFC Liege contract and wanted to join Dunkerque. A fee couldn't be agreed and Liege subsequently offered Bosman a new contract with a 70% wage cut.
Bosman went to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to sue his employer for restraint of trade. The ruling found in his favour, and the EU established free movement of labour within football. From 1995 onwards, any player whose contract expired was free to join another club.
This may sound sensible these days but at the time it was controversial. Players suddenly had the power to bargain for more money on extended contracts, as clubs didn't want to risk losing their assets on free transfers.
5. Fernando Torres | Liverpool to Chelsea
Fernando Torres was loved at Anfield. He scored 91 goals in 244 appearances for the Reds, had the finishing quality Liverpool had yearned years for, and terrorised opposition defenders. But he remained without a trophy.
Midway through his fourth season at the club, Torres handed in a transfer request to force Liverpool into accepting Chelsea's £40m offer. On deadline day in January 2011 he moved to Chelsea for around £50m, setting a new British transfer record.
Cue fans burning shirts outside Anfield. To make matters worse, Liverpool signed Andy Carroll in a £35m deal as a replacement on the same day. Carroll took Torres' No.9 shirt. He didn't replace Torres' goal threat.
4. Roberto Baggio | Fiorentina to Juventus
Roberto Baggio wanted to stay at Fiorentina. In 1990 he led the club to the UEFA Cup final, where they lost 3-1 over two legs to rivals Juventus. That summer Baggio was wanted across Europe and Fiorentina were in financial trouble. They had to sell their star man.
Along came Juventus and Baggio, despite his reluctance to leave his beloved club, moved to Turin "by force", as Gazzetta dello Sport put it.
He left Florence ablaze, with fans rioting in the streets and throwing Molotov cocktails at the club's HQ. There were 50 injuries and nine arrests on the day of Baggio's departure. The following season he refused to take a penalty against his former club.
3. Mo Johnston | Celtic to Rangers
Mo Johnston didn't transfer directly from Celtic to Rangers in 1989. He had a spell at Nantes between the two Glasgow clubs. Surely those two years would be enough to dampen the anger a switch to Ibrox would trigger?
Well, no. Johnston had been down for a return to Celtic before Graeme Souness convinced him to join Rangers instead. Celtic fans were livid, while many Rangers supporters were adamant they wouldn't support a Catholic player who had once donned the green and white jersey.
Johnston won over the Gers fans when he scored in the Old Firm a few months after his arrival. He would go on to win two Premiership titles with Rangers before moving to Everton in 1991.
2. Jordan Henderson | Liverpool to Al-Ettifaq
Jordan Henderson's decision to quit Liverpool for a £700,000-a-week contract at Saudi Pro League club Al Ettifaq in 2023 went beyond football. Henderson, a champion of LGBT+ causes when captain at Anfield, was criticised across society for heading to a country that deems homosexuality illegal.
The controversy wasn't that Henderson was willing to cash in and quit a team chasing the Premier League title, just to score a few extra bucks. The issue was that Henderson had become an ally to the LGTB+ community that is so fiercely abused in Saudi.
Liverpool's official LGBT+ fans group, Kop Outs, questioned whether Henderson "was ever an actual ally". In his welcome video on social media, Al Ettifaq blacked out the rainbow armband on Henderson's images.
1. Luis Figo | Barcelona to Real Madrid
"We hate you so much, because we loved you so much". That was the banner that greeted Luis Figo when he played at the Bernabeu for the first time after quitting Real Madrid for rivals Barcelona in 2000.
The world-record £40m fee didn't matter to the 100,000 Real Madrid fans in the stadium. Figo was public enemy No.1 and still is to this day. A suckling pig was even thrown at the former Portugal superstar.
Figo moved to the Bernabeu after Real's new president Florentino Perez signalled he wanted to start a Galactico era at the club. He was the first of many big signings each summer, which included David Beckham and Ronaldo (another former Barcelona player).
The deal sparked a rekindling of the Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry that has grown to the day.
Want to see the biggest movers and shakers, and what the odds are on the latest transfer rumours? Check out our dedicated next transfer odds page for the most up-to-date odds and where the biggest names in football could be heading to.
