In the wake of revelations that Championship club Burnley turned down Andre Villas-Boas for their manager’s job in 2010, Sport360° looks back at other famous ‘what might have been’ tales in football.
1. Diego Maradona (Argentinos Juniors to Sheffield United, 1978)
It could have been all so very different for Diego Maradona had a move to Sheffield United transpired some 34 years ago.
The Blades, then in the second-division in England, had, as the story goes, were supposedly keen to bring the 17-year-old Maradona to Bramall Lane.
However, reluctant to pay a reported £200,000 asking price for the teen, boss Harry Haslam decided instead to use his transfer kitty to sign Maradona’s international team-mate Alejandro Sabella for £160,000.
Sabella would go on to make 76 league appearances for the Blades in his two years at the club before a brief spell with Leeds and then a return home.
Maradona? Well, he went onto become arguably the greatest player ever, winning the World Cup in 1986 with Argentina and inspiring Italian side Napoli to domestic and European success.
2. Johan Cruyff (Ajax to Dumbarton, 1982)
A contract dispute with Ajax alerted a host of clubs across Europe that the Dutch master could be prised away from the home of ‘Total Football’ – the Amsterdam Arena.
Scottish minnows Dumbarton, then in the second division, were one of those to make a bold, ambitious pitch with boss Sean Fallon sent to the Dutch capital to try and convince Cruyff to join him at Boghead.
Upon his arrival back in the West of Scotland town he famously proclaimed: “Having spoken to the boy Cruyff, he says he’ll get back to us.” Dumbarton are still awaiting the call.
3. Eric Cantona (Marseille to Sheffield Wednesday, 1991)
Before he became ‘The King’ at Manchester United, in the early 1990s Eric Cantona was still searching for a place he could call home.
He almost found it at Hillsbrough had he not been hoodwinked by then Wednesday boss Trevor Francis as he picks up the story.
“He didn’t invite me for a trial. I was there for a week and I thought I was there to sign,’ said Cantona. ‘My lawyer was there and he spoke to try and find a way with my contract. I trained and played in a friendly game. We won 4-3. I scored 3 goals. After one week, he [Francis] asked me to spend one more week on trial.
“There weren’t a lot of foreigners in England then, maybe some from the north of Europe but not many from the south. Maybe they were suspicious, but I was a France international and Sheffield Wednesday wanted more time to decide about me. That was not a very good way to go about things’
The rest, as they say, is history. Cantona went on to help Leeds United to the old Division 1 title in 1992 before finally finding his spiritual home at Old Trafford, helping United end their 26-year wait for a league crown.
4. Zinedine Zidane (Bordeaux to Blackburn Rovers, 1994)
‘Zizou’ was the toast of French football in 1994 having clambered off the bench to score a double on his Les Bleus debut and rescue a 2-2 draw with Czech Republic.
And so the story goes then Rovers boss Kenny Dalglish, who would lead the club to the title the following year, made his pitch to owner Jack Walker about bringing Zidane to Ewood Park.
Zidane, famously described by commentator Barry Davies as having ‘the body of a bear [and] the mind of a fox’, would never end up in Lancashire though, Walker’s response to Dalglish’s pleas stuff of legend.
“Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?” came his alleged reply.
Zidane would go onto become one of the finest players ever with Juventus and Real Madrid. Sherwood, on the other, hand finished his career with Coventry City.
5. Ronaldinho (Gremio to St Mirren, 2001)
The buck-toothed star was oh so close to strutting his Samba stuff at in the Scottish Premier League with the Buddies, before a fake passport scandal intervened and ended St Mirren’s hopes of taking ‘Ronnie’ to Love Street.
Just two years later, Ronaldinho was on his way to Barcelona via a brief stop in Paris where he would go on to cement his place as one of the greatest player’s of his generation.
For two years at the Camp Nou he was untouchable as the best player on the planet, making a mockery of claims he was “too ugly” to join Florentino Perez’s Galactico project at rivals Real Madrid. But that’s a story for another day.
6. Didier Drogba (Guingamp to Portsmouth, 2003)
Before the ‘Drog’ was terrorising Premier League defences with Chelsea, the Ivorian was cutting his teeth alongside former Blues team-mate Florent Malouda with unfashionable French side Guingamp.
His 21 goals in Ligue 1 in the 2002-03 season caught the eye of then Pompey boss Harry Redknapp who had led the South Coast club to he promised land of the Premier League in style that year.
As the story goes, Redknapp identified Drogba as a possible signing in the summer of 2003. However, then owner Milan Mandaric refused to stump up the £5million asking price.
French giants Marseille weren’t so reluctant, agreeing to meet Guingamp’s asking price. Drogba immediately set about repaying their outlay, bagging 32 goals in all competitions and landing the Ligue 1 Player of the Year award before joining Chelsea 12 months later for £24m.
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