Football transfers and strange tricks to convince players

Back in the summer of 1988, Paul Gascoigne, voted Young Player of the Year in 1987/88, believed he would leave Newcastle to join Manchester United. A phone conversation took place and Gascoigne nodded to manager Sir Alex Ferguson. "Dad, go on holiday and I'll sign the contract when I get back," he said.

The MU coach did not expect that when he was on summer vacation, Tottenham appeared and offered to give Gascoigne's parents a house, and also generously sent his sister a sunbed. They hit the psychology of Gazza wanting to take care of his family, and then owned the greatest talent in England right at MU's fingertips, the team refused to pay more.

Sir Alex later regretted that Gascoigne had made a big mistake in rejecting MU. Gazza himself agreed with that view. "Maybe my sister should have gone tanning instead of asking for a sunbed, and I came to MU to reap many Cups," the player who won the only FA Cup in 1990/91 in his career in the foggy country lamented.

Instead of MU, Paul Gascoigne went to Tottenham and only won 1 title.

Manchester United's former rivals Arsenal also had a strange clause when signing Dennis Bergkamp. Due to his fear of flying, the Dutch striker proposed to insert a clause into his contract that would allow him to not fly to away matches in European Cups. To bring him to London from Inter Milan, the Gunners agreed to deduct from his salary every time he did not fly. "Let's say they gave me 1 million, but they would deduct 100 thousand because you did not fly," Bergkamp said.

In those years, Premier League clubs had difficulty attracting stars, especially those playing in Serie A, the world's top league in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1996, in an attempt to persuade Faustino Asprilla to leave Parma, Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd lied without blinking an eye. When the Colombian striker asked him, “Where is Newcastle in London?”, he replied, “It’s close by.” Only after joining the North East club did Asprilla discover that the city was 400 kilometres away from the English capital.

Faustino Asprilla came to Newcastle because he thought it was close to London.

In the 2000s, the Premier League grew and it became easier to sign players. However, competition came from other clubs in the league. For example, in 2005, Manchester United believed they would sign young talent John Obi Mikel from Norway's Lyn Oslo Academy.

In order to convince Mikel, Sir Alex invited him to train at the club, where he arranged for Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt to play the role of the bad guys, who specialized in playing tough, while the fierce captain Roy Keane took on the role of "bodyguard", trying to protect the young boy. The Nigerian talent was very grateful to Roy Keane, and was even more moved when Sir Alex said that Scholes and other stars were also amazed by his talent, then forced him to sign a contract immediately.

But on the day of the signing, Chelsea billionaire Roman Abramovich "kidnapped" Mikel, took him to a secret place in London and put him in a house with three other Nigerians. These people immediately became close, then made it difficult for Mikel to make a choice. If he went to MU, the other three would have to leave. If he chose Chelsea, they would have a career. So Mikel joined the London team, stayed for more than 10 years and won 11 titles.

Lionel Messi joins Inter Miami with unprecedented treatment.

Over time, as football has become more commercialized and many teams are willing to pay hundreds of millions of euros for a player, clubs have been forced to be more creative in offering benefits.

Inter Miami had an incredible idea two years ago when they tried to sign Lionel Messi in a financially unequal competition with rivals from Saudi Arabia.

Over the course of several months, Inter Miami has worked out a solution to overcome the financial gap by leveraging the close relationship between co-owner David Beckham and the Argentine star, offering Messi ownership in the MLS club after his contract ends. The deal also includes additional income from several commercial partners of Major League Soccer, such as MLS Season Pass subscriptions on Apple TV, as well as deals with Adidas and Fanatics. In addition, former teammates and close friends of Messi have also joined Inter Miami, including Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.

There are so many transfers taking place that it could make the summer of 2025 one of the busiest transfer windows in history.

Transfers have become a more massive and competitive business than ever, forcing clubs to juggle their goals while players use the situation to make demands.

“The demands are getting more and more bizarre,” a representative for several Premier League players told The Athletic, “It can be something very specific, like helping to repatriate their pets if they have to travel, or as mundane as having a separate area for family and friends at the stadium.

Either way, it's just that players should demand it early, especially if it's important to them. Clubs won't want to spend more money when negotiations are almost done, which could lead to a deal falling through."