da bet7： With Oriol Romeu having just rejoined Barcelona, GOAL runs through the most bizarre deals in football history

da esport bet： The transfer market is a wild and crazy place. It rarely fails to surprise. Time and time again, a player will enrage one club's supporters by joining their most hated rivals.

But we've arguably grown accustomed to such betrayals in an era in which money makes the football world go around. There's also a twisted logic to such transfers. At the end of the day, we're usually talking about top players moving between top clubs. It's not strange.

Sometimes, though, there are deals that seemingly come out of nowhere, involving players and clubs that are just downright bizarre. You know, the ones that leave you scratching your head and wondering, 'How on earth did that happen?!'

Here at GOAL, we'd argue that Oril Romeu's return to Barcelona after a bang-average career is one such transfer, but there are many, many more…

Getty ImagesBebe: Vitoria – Manchester United

Bebe had only just joined Vitoria de Guimaraes from Estrela on a free transfer and had yet to even make a competitive appearance for the Primeira Liga club when Manchester United acquired the 20-year-old for approximately £7.2 million ($9.4m) in August 2010.

It was a truly baffling deal, not least because Red Devils boss Alex Ferguson had never even seen the forward play, admitting that he sanctioned the signing solely on the advice of former assistant manager Carlos Queiroz.

There was even a Portuguese police investigation into the transfer, after it emerged that Jorge Mendes, who became Bebe's agent just days before the move, pocketed Mendes 40 per cent (£2.9m/$3.8m) of the fee, though no charges were pressed against anyone involved.

The only certainty surrounding a mysterious move was that Bebe was nowhere near good enough for United and he left Old Trafford in 2014 for Benfica, after three loan moves and just two Premier League appearances.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesKevin-Prince Boateng: Sassuolo – Barcelona

Following the sale of Munir El Haddadi to Sevilla in January 2019, it was clear that Barcelona needed another attacker. It was also widely known that the Catalans didn't have much money to spend.

In that context, it was hardly surprising that Barca decided to bring in a replacement on loan. What was shocking, though, was that they went for Kevin-Prince Boateng, with a view to a permanent transfer for €8m (£7m/$9m) in the summer.

Then 31, the former AC Milan forward had been plying his trade at Sassuolo when he received the most unexpected of calls from Camp Nou.

In fairness, Boateng had impressed as a 'false 9' during the first half of the 2018-19 campaign but nobody was in the least bit surprised when he returned to Italy at the end of the season, joining Fiorentina after failing to score once in just four outings for Barca.

GettyAndy Carroll: Newcastle – Liverpool

"I wasn't ready to leave," Andy Carroll has admitted. "It came as a shock. Newcastle was my club. I was 22. I could never get a grip at Liverpool."

Indeed, Carroll didn't even know who his new team-mates would be, revealing that he had to Google Liverpool's squad on the helicopter ride down to Merseyside.

Injuries consistently ruined the striker's hopes of striking up a real understanding with Luis Suarez and Co. but the unavoidable truth is that £35m proved a huge waste of money for Carroll, who hit just six Premier League goals in three years at Anfield.

Getty ImagesSol Campbell: Free agent – Notts County

Sol Campbell learned the hard way that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is. The centre-back couldn't believe his luck when, in 2009, he was offered the most lucrative contract of his career (£40,000 per week) to join League Two side Notts County. 

Director of Football Sven-Goran Eriksson had played a major role in convincing Campbell that the club's owners had sufficient funds to take the oldest club in football into the Premier League. 

However, Campbell realised after one game that they didn't even have the money to pay his wages, so he departed, with early reports claiming that he was not in good enough shape to play for County.

In truth, though, the former England international was disgusted with himself, later revealing that he had been "a mug" to have believed everything he had been told by Eriksson, executive chairman Peter Trembling and Munto Finance, a Middle Eastern consortium owned by Qadbak Investments, had told him.