With Ronaldo returning to Carrington for training and a meeting with Ten Haag, the Dutchman is determined to keep him at the club. However, it’s still looking likely for Ronaldo to force a move amid concerns he’s unable to compete for the biggest trophies. Here’s the 10 most famous times players have forced a move away from their club.
10. Luka Modric: £30m (Tottenham to Real Madrid)
Coming to the end of his third year at Spurs Luka Modric decided he wanted to seek a new club where he could challenge for the biggest trophies. This came of no surprise with Tottenham fans but the way he handled it definitely did.
After Daniel Levy rejected his move to Chelsea the Croatian refused to play in their first game of the 2010/11 season. He did return to the squad and made 42 appearances that season.
However, when Real Madrid showed interest before the next season Modric refused to travel for preseason, which forced Spurs to sell him for £30m. There’s no denying his move was a personal success with 20 trophies in 10 seasons but its easy to see why Spurs fans are bitter.
9. Marcos Rojo: £18m (Sporting CP to Man United)
Unlike Cristiano Ronaldo who is forcing a move away from the Red Devils, Marcos Rojo was doing everything in his power to force a move to the club.
Back in 2011 when Louis Van Gaal showed interest in the Argentinian he was ultimately surprised but wanted to make sure he secured his dream transfer. This led to the defender refusing to have any communication with his current club at the time, Sporting CP.
Rojo’s efforts of forcing a move were a success and United bought the player for £18m.
8. Phillipe Coutinho: £120m (Liverpool to Barcelona)
Coutinho to Barcelona was a chaotic transfer saga which took place over two full seasons. Following Neymar’s departure at Barcelona the club decided to use the money from the transfer to sign his Brazilian teammate from Liverpool.
In their first attempts to sign Coutinho, Barcelona offered two bids in excess of £100m and the Liverpool number 10 even handed in a transfer request. The following season Liverpool accepted a bid of £120m due to Coutinho’s lack of willingness to be in the squad.
This transfer was nothing short of a disaster for Coutinho with the player being played out of position and within Messi’s shadow. Jurgen Klopp predicted this and said “I told him stay here and they will end up building a statue in your honor. Go somewhere else, to Barcelona, to Bayern Munich, to Real Madrid, and you will be just another player. Here you can be something more”
7. Dimitar Berbatov: £34m (Spurs to Man United)
It’s no secret that Daniel Levy and Sir Alex Ferguson don’t have the best of relationships and the answer to this is the transfer of Berbatov to United. Looking for a new forward to add to their star studded line up Sir Alex sought the niche skills of Dimitar Berbatov.
With Daniel Levy putting a wall up to the transfer, Berbatov decided to force his way out of the club by beginning the season on the bench and the following week refusing to travel to Southampton and then Chelsea. All resulting in a fine.
However, his mission to force a move out was successful and United secured a deal for Bulgarian with minutes to go on deadline day.
6. Cesc Fabregas: 30m (Arsenal to Barcelona)
Cesc Fabregas is one of the few players who left a club to only go and join back later in his career. After being a proven top academy player at Barcelona, Fabregas joined Arsenals academy in 2003. After spending almost 7 years at the club he decided he wanted to return to Catalonia with Arsenal in decline and Barca sitting at the top of world football.
After denying Barcelona’s first approach for the Spaniard they came back a year later. Arsenal were still not wanting to lose Fabregas but with the midfielder skipping training and therefore unavailable for the first game of the season he was sold.
This saga made Fabregas unpopular among Gunners fans which was further affected by his move to Chelsea three years later.
5. Riyad Mahrez: £60m (Leicester to Man City)
One year after signing a new contract with Leicester he announced that he wanted to leave the Foxes. Although it was not confirmed, Manchester City were the club he was in negotiations with that Summer. The deal didn’t finalize but this transfer didn’t end there.
In January Mahrez was adamant to get his move across the line. He handed in a transfer request and refused to train meaning he missed two premier league matches. Still the deal didn’t go through and Mahrez had to crawl back into the line up and finish the season.
Finally, the following summer Leicester negotiated a deal which suited them and the transfer went ahead.
4. William Gallas: Swap Deal (Arsenal to Chelsea)
This deal is definitely one of the stranger ones that has happened within the football world. The deal saw Gallas and Ashley Cole swap clubs with Gallas going to Arsenal and Cole to Chelsea.
To force this swap deal through Gallas reportedly refused to play for Chelsea in the 2006 FA Cup Semi Final vs Liverpool and even threatened to score own goals if he was placed in the line up against Man City the following season.
This meant the swap deal went through to Gallas’ delight but it seems Karma got it’s way with him as he went without a trophy until his retirement.
3. Antoine Griezmann: £108m (Atletico Madrid to Barca)
Having had several successful seasons under Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid and refusing to ever leave the club he was a fan favorite.
However, when Barcelona came knocking for the Frenchman he was quick to turn his back on the club that helped make his name. Even after signing a contract extension Griezmann wanted out and went in strike forcing his manager to sell he player to their La Liga rivals.
It seems Madrid may of got the last laugh with Griezmann struggling to find his footing at Barcelona and returning on loan two years later.
2. Dimitri Payet: £13.5m (West Ham to Marseille)
Payet arrived at West Ham in 2015 and was quick to make himself a fan favorite with his outrageous goals and bag of skills, both which led him to getting a nomination for Premier League player of the season.
When his previous club Marseille provided him with the prospect to return he Frenchman quickly tarnished his reputation with West Ham fans. It was suddenly revealed in a Press Conference with Irons manager at the time Slaven Bilic that Payet was not appearing for the club again.
From there the deal moved quickly and he returned to Marseille that January for £13.5m.
1. Peter Odemwingie: £2.5m (West Brom to Cardiff)
The transfer story of Peter Odemwingie is a rather hilarious one from onlookers but definitely not one he personally looks back on with a smile. With a lack of game time at his current club West Brom due to the rise of Romelu Lukaku he decided to take to social media and complain, resulting in a fine of two weeks wages.
Rumor’s then circulated of a move to QPR and as deadline day arrived Odemwingie turned up to Loftus Road ready to finish his transfer. What he didn’t know unlike everyone else is the move had collapsed and he was left with egg on his face as he was delivered the news by reporters.
He did eventually secure a move away from West Brom moving to Cardiff at the end of the season for £2.5m.
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