Ten weirdest soccer transfers ever: Carlos Tevez Javier Mascherano, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, more

The summer is hitting full transfer swing now that UEFA Euro 2024 and Copa America have concluded this weekend, and nothing is expected to top Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid in terms of star power. However, international tournaments produce intriguing under the radar moves and there will always be wildcard transfers in any given window -- especially ones in summer with so many free agents around. We take a look at some of the weirdest moves to have ever happened and rank them in terms of oddness.

Honorable mentions

First up, there are a few that did not make the cut with Thomas Gravesen's Real Madrid stint, Emmanuel Adebayor's Paraguayan foray with Olimpia and Edgar David's time with Barnet in the English lower reaches. Bebe to Manchester United was more high profile, Jack Wilshere to Aarhus in Denmark was unexpected, but not totally out of the blue given his injuries and Juninho to Middlesbrough was another that just missed out alongside Andre-Pierre Gignac becoming a legend for Tigres UANL in Mexico.

Now, to the top 10 weirdest transfers ever.

10: Martin Braithwaite to Barcelona

Back in 2020, Barcelona used a little known transfer rule in La Liga to snare Martin Braithwaite from minnows Leganes. Injuries to Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez dictated the seemingly random move and the Denmark international teamed up with Lionel Messi. It cost the Catalan giants just over $19.5 million because of Braithwaite's minimum fee release clause and he went on to score 10 goals in two years before his contract was terminated as money issues grew at Camp Nou. These days, Brathwaite plays for Barca's local rivals RCD Espanyol and has been much more prolific.

9: Joey Barton to Marseille

Olympique de Marseille have made some strange moves over the years including a short spell for Tyrone Mears on loan. However, that paled in comparison a few years later with a move for Joey Barton in 2012. Fresh from avoiding relegation with QPR, he arrived in France with a ban hanging over him which meant that he was not able to feature domestically until almost the midway point of the season. Barton ended up featuring regularly and getting into scrapes with Zlatan Ibrahimovic of PSG as well as becoming a novelty and comic favorite during his solitary season with OM.

8: Jay Jay Okocha to Bolton

How Jay Jay Okocha ended up at Bolton Wanderers where he played some of the best soccer of his career remains a mystery to many. The legendary Nigerian will go down as one of the most naturally gifted players to ever play the game and yet he was available on a free after leaving PSG and was picked up by the Trotters. Okocha was not only key to keeping Bolton in the Premier League, they thrived with him as their playmaker captain and even reached a League Cup final in 2004 which added to his iconic status at the club.

7: Esteban Cambiasso to Leicester City

If Okocha to Bolton was weird, then Esteban Cambiasso going from Real Madrid to Inter and then on to Leicester City was equally wild, if not more so. The Argentinian midfielder produced one magnificent campaign with the Foxes in 2014-15 and picked up a handful of goals to become a huge hit with the fans in his solitary term in Leicestershire. Had he stayed on for another year, he might have been crowned an EPL champion with his former teammates but he opted to finish his career in Greece with Olympiacos instead. Still, Leicester fans to this day still recall Cambiasso's midfield mastery.

6: Gennaro Gattuso to Rangers

Another strange move in hindsight was Gennaro Gattuso's Rangers stint in the late 1990s. It is often forgotten that the popular former Italy and Milan midfielder spent some time in Scotland after his club Perugia opted to sell him to the Glasgow giants. After being pressured to accept the money on offer by his father, Gattuso joined the Gers and was more popular with Walter Smith than he was with Dick Advocaat, but just recalling the stint is bizarre given what he would go on to do for the Rossoneri and Azzurri via Salernitana.

"I did not want to go to Glasgow," he recalled later. "I had played two games in Serie B and was promoted to Serie A with Perugia, where I played eight games without a contract. Then I played the under-19 finals with Italy. One day, my father comes and tells me that a representative of Glasgow Rangers has come to town and has offered a contract to me. I did not want to leave and I told this to my father. He told me that the money they were offering was so much he could not even write down the total figure. He told me it was four times his total earnings in his lifetime. When I still said no, he said he would punch me if I did not accept it, so I signed for Rangers!"

5: Jesse Lingard to FC Seoul

One of the strangest transfers which is currently playing out -- and not necessarily as expected -- is Jesse Lingard's time in South Korean soccer with FC Seoul. Although it has been a major success off the field, the early 2024 switch after a period as a free agent has been stop-start at best due to injuries and poor fitness. The highest profile player to ever kick a ball in the K League, the 31-year-old needs to make good on his two-year deal after the six-time Korean champions gambled on him at a very low ebb in his career after an equally surprising loan move to Nottingham Forest.

4: Bojan Krkic to Stoke

Now we are into familiar territory with some of the usual suspects coming into play and one of the names chief among them is former wonderkid Bojan Krkic. The ex-Barcelona failed to hit the ridiculous heights set for him by Lionel Messi before him and despite spells with AS Roma, Milan, Ajax, Montreal and Vissel Kobe, his most surprise posting came in the Premier League with Stoke City. The Potters signed the Spaniard for four years and ended up actually staying for five and even featuring in the Championship after relegation. Aside from his early career with Barca, it was his longest and most prolific career spell with any club outside of Catalonia.

3: Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting to PSG

Another Stoke connection involves Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting who enjoyed a twilight career revival as a quality squad player for top level teams. The first big move that really raised eybrows though was the Cameroon international joining PSG after just five goals with the Potters. Choupo-Moting joined players like Neymar and Mbappe but chipped in with some important goals and was well-liked despite some shocking misses. It eventually led him to Bayern Munich where he developed a more clinical edge and flirted with being a key striker post-Robert Lewandowski before regressing and eventually leaving as a free agent this summer.

2: Julien Faubert to Real Madrid

One of the weirdest transfers to ever take place saw Julien Faubert leave West Ham United for Real Madrid. After a poor debut season with the Hammers, the Frenchman somehow landed a winter 2009 switch to the Spanish giants on loan. There was never any real danger of Faubert joining Los Blancos permanently as he made just two appearances and eventually returned to London before a nomadic end to his career after a return to Girondins de Bordeaux.

1: Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham

West Ham, oddly enough, also feature in arguably the strangest transfer move of all-time which saw Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano join the club in 2006. Both went on to bigger and better things in England with Tevez joining Manchester United and then Manchester City while Mascherano joined Liverpool and later Barcelona. Few will forget Tevez saving West Ham on the final day of the season with the only goal in a 1-0 win away at Manchester United which helped his next move which was to Old Trafford on loan. Both have since gone into management but are still recalled because of that unexpected double move to West Ham.