Gianluigi Donnarumma (ITA), MARCH 28, 2017 – Football / Soccer : International Friendly match between Netherlands 1-2 Italy at Amsterdam ArenA in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Maurizio Borsari/AFLO)
Everyone has the prerogative to change their mind, but in football it can lead to a certain level of infamy – as former Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa stars can attest.
From committing to one club only to join another, to saying you want to leave a club only to then commit, footballers’ words often need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Here are some memorable examples of players who looked all set to do one thing, only to then do exactly the opposite.
John Obi Mikel
On April 29, 2005, shortly after turning 18, Mikel signed a contract with Manchester United and wore a United shirt in a press conference to announce the transfer. Deal done, it would have seemed.
However, no agents were present when Mikel put pen to paper, and Chelsea claimed they already had a deal in place to sign the teenager from Lyn Oslo having also taken him on trial the previous year.
Mikel went missing the following month before surfacing to claim he had been pressured into signing for United and that he did in fact want to join Chelsea.
He did not return to Lyn for three months and played no club football for an entire year, but in July 2006, after a lengthy legal battle, Mikel finally signed for Chelsea, with United receiving £12million in compensation, three times the amount Lyn got. Continue reading