For as long as a football is being passed around in grounds from Peterhead to Berwick, transfers and other football gossip will always be the talk of stadiums, workplaces, and pubs of course. Whether it’s a tip-off from a cousin’s best friend, who also happens to be a player or a taxi driver who’s got a friend of a friend that’s involved, rumours will always swirl, despite mostly being backed by some seriously dubious sources.
Scottish football has seen its fair share of near-misses when it comes to game-changing transfers. Deals that almost happened, like Kenny Dalglish's rumoured return to Celtic or a young Andy Robertson staying at Queen’s Park, could have dramatically altered the landscape.
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As a rule, Scottish football fans generally end up settling for some La Liga player that’s ‘brimming with potential’, but very rarely does the league receive an injection of pure, raw, talent. Stop and think about it for a moment – imagine Maradona in Fife, or even Ronaldinho in Paisley – now that could have been life-changing. Today we’ll be looking at some past football transfers that could have almost happened.
Ivan De La Peña to Celtic
Spanish football superstar Ivan De La Peña was key to allowing FC Barcelona to secure the Spanish Cup and win the Winner’s Cup during the 1997 – 98 season. In September 2003, De La Peña also spent a trial week with Celtic after experiencing some pushback at Lazio, pulling on a Hoops kit for a game against Livingston at the Excelsior Stadium before starting talks about a possible relocation deal in Qatar. That deal however fell through and despite Martin O’Neill inviting him back to train for the club for another season, De La Peña chose to return to Spain instead where he became a star at Espanyol. In a whimsical twist of faith however, the Spanish midfielder returned to Glasgow in 2007 along with Espanyol, who incidentally were beaten by Sevilla during the UEFA Cup final held at Hampden Park.
Diego Forlan to Dundee
Former Manchester United, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal player, as well as World Cup Golden Ball winner Diego Furlan, would have sparkled and shined at Dens Park if Dundee had the capital to support his transfer from Argentina’s Independiente. Dario Bonetti, ex-assistant manager at Dundee revealed that back in 2002, he had spotted the Uruguayan striker’s potential during a scouting trip in South America, however, the club was rumoured to be under budget when it came to the £750,000 transfer price for the player. Of course, many fans felt dubious about Bonetti’s claims, especially after the Dark Blues swooped up Claudio Caniggia and Fabrizio Ravanelli soon after.
Diego Maradona Jr to Dunfermline Athletic
Back in 2004, there was talk of Dunfermline signing up the legendary Maradona’s son to the team – a bit of news so interesting that it made it to the headlines all over the world at the time. With names like Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Blackburn Rovers also supposedly interested in signing up the 17-year-old Neapolitan-born player at the time, it's bizarre how this player ended up on trial at East Park by the end of it.
He was eventually offered a contract by the Pars which fell through after his advisors described it as ‘disdainful’. However, the Maradona legacy didn’t go too far in this case, with Maradona Jr drifting out of pro football by around 2012 and dedicating his time to winning titles for the Napoli Beach football team instead.
Ronaldinho to St Mirren
Perhaps one of the greatest potential Scottish football transfers that never went through involves the legendary Ronaldo de Assis Moriera and an audacious move by St Mirren in 2001. The Buddies had already enquired about having him over on a short-term loan from his Grêmio club before his multi-million move to Paris St Germain in 2001, however, it’s understood that the Brazilian footballer was interested in the move, however, his and his brother’s involvement with a fake passport at the time made it impossible for St Mirren to receive international clearance for the player before the deadline struck.
Steven Fletcher to Real Madrid
The Spanish football giants apparently had their eye on Fletcher, with talks of a potential £4 million transfer set to happen back in 2008. The club had followed the British striker during his under-19 Euro championships performance, with Julen Lopetegui, Real Madrid’s head recruiter at the time stating that Fletcher was one of the ten young players in Europe to watch that year. Nevertheless, the transfer never went through, and Fletcher ended up moving from Hibs to Burnley instead for a £3 million fee back in 2009.
Johan Cruyff to Dumbarton
If we’re going to go way back down this rabbit hole, then we’ve absolutely got to mention the time Dumbarton ambitiously bid to bring back former Barcelona and Ajax legend Johan Cruyff home to Boghead Park. During this time, Sean Fallon flew out to the Netherlands to attempt negotiating a deal with the 30-something old Cruyff who was working as a technical advisor at Ajax at the time, however the deal never went through because the player admitted he was probably too old by then to play in Scotland where the weather is known to be challenging.
Samuel Eto’o to Rangers
And lastly, we’ve got one of the greatest examples of poaching Scottish football has ever seen, with the case of the Cameroonian centre-forward Eto’o, who achieved sterling status in Barcelona back when he scored 108 goals over the span of 144 games. While still playing for Real Mallorca, while on loan from Real Madrid, Rangers FC’s boss Alex McLeish expressed his interest in signing him on. To this end, McLeish sent out his right-hand man Andy Watson to watch a friendly match between Cameroon and Argentina. At the time, Mallorca wanted around £6 million to seal the deal, but at the time McLeish didn’t regard him as a priority signing and the transfer never went through. He was eventually snapped up by Barcelona for around €24 million in the summer of 2004 after some very lengthy negotiations.