Transfers that did not happen, Part Four

1- Prior to joining Bari in the summer of 1991, England midfielder David Platt also had an offer to join France’s big spending Olympique Marseille.

Platt himself stated that even though OM is a better team, the greater challenge was at Bari.

Photo From: Guerin Sportivo, September 18-24, 1991

(David Platt, September 15, 1991, Bari 1-Sampdoria 1)

2- AC Milan’s Ruud Gullit was seriously injured in 1989. His injury sidelined him for practically the season of 1989/90.

In case Gullit could not recover from his injury, the AC Milan management took an option on Steaua Bucharest’s Gheorge Hagi.

Gullit recovered and came back for AC Milan and Hagi joined Real Madrid in the summer of 1990.

Photo From: Don Balon, Chile Edition, August 20-26, 1996, Issue no 219

(Gheorge Hagi, June 26, 1994, World Cup, USA 0-Romania 1)

3- Liverpool’s Danish midfielder Jan Molby almost joined Barcelona in the November of 1990. However, the teams could not finally agree on a fee and the deal was called off.

Barcelona Manager Johann Cruyff was eyeing Molby, since Barcelona’s Dutch sweeper Ronald Koeman was expected to be injured for most of the season.

Photo from: Onze, November 1988

(Jan Molby and Pierre Littbarski, June 13, 1986, World Cup, Denmark 2-West Germany 0)

4-Diego Maradona created a controversy in the Summer and early Fall of 1989 when he delayed his return to Napoli from Argentina following duty during the Copa America.

Olympique Marseille’s ambitious President Bernard Tapie had made an offer for Maradona and the player was willing to join.

Maradona was showing early signs of the stress of playing in the Serie A and the relative stress free environment of the French League must have appealed to him.

In any case, Napoli would have none of it and Maradona was forced to return to Napoli with the season already already underway for weeks.

Photo from: World Soccer, September 1989

(Diego Maradona on the cover of World Soccer Magazine)

5-Real Madrid had made an offer to acquire Dinamo Kiev midfielder Leonid Burjak in the Fall of 1981.

This was during the cold war era, where Soviet player transfers to the west never happened.

Predictably, Soviet officials refused Burjak permission to join Real Madrid.

Photo from: Onze, September 1983

(Dinamo Kiev’s Leonid Burjak)