You know how in F1 you'll sometimes get a rich guy whose dad pays an F1 team to allow him to drive for them ?(Usually pretty good already, but perhaps just not quite good enough otherwise). Either that or they will bring sponsorship money from their local country to the team that signs them up and pay to drive that way. Has there ever been any of that in football, where some rich kid, not quite good enough to earn a spot by merit alone, got to join a team by paying to play?
Not pay but we signed Ali Dia on the basis of a recommendation from someone pretending to be George Weahs cousin. That's gotta take some beating surely
At least nowadays you would have the silver lining knowing that you would end up selling him to us for a profit.
Yes..when Gaddafi purchased Juventus or had shares in Juventus and one of his son's managed to turn out for them...back in the 90's i'm sure of it.
I remember that. Someone called Souness pretending to be George Weah, saying, "My Cousin Ali Dia is awesome, you should sign him" and Souness, like a gimp, without verifying any of the facts, or seeing the kid play, just offered him a short term contract He came on and was a donkey
Anthony Pulis had a cushy journeyman career being signed by teams his Dad managed. Only played something like 50 games over 10 years before moving to the US.
I would say that Pak Ji Sung's acquisition wasn't based on what he could do on the pitch, does that count?