The Premier League is one of the most competitive and lucrative competitions in the world for players to ply their trade, so it is natural for the biggest names to have some desire to play there one day.
Fans are often given that exhilarating feeling of seeing a name linked with their club in the transfer window, but it can grow tiresome when it is the same name repeatedly mentioned as a potential target — only for the deal never to happen.
But whether it is an unfortunately-timed injury or a transfer negotiation that broke down over a fee or personal terms, there are plenty of cases where the move just hasn’t materialised for some players, or they have simply chosen to go elsewhere. Mirror Football looks at 10 of the most notorious examples of players who always looked likely to move to England, but never took the plunge.
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Mario Gomez
It is only fair that Gomez, one of the most lethal strikers in his peak years and consistently linked with English clubs, was included on this list.
The Germany target man made his name with Stuttgart and had been tipped to join Chelsea in the summer of 2009 as a long-term replacement for Didier Drogba. But he opted to stay in Germany and sign for Bayern Munich, scoring 113 goals in four seasons with the Bavarian giants.
Even when he left Bayern in 2013, Gomez was again targeted by several Premier League sides such as Manchester United and West Ham before deciding to move to Serie A outfit Fiorentina. He enjoyed a fruitful spell with Besiktas and Wolfsburg after that, before ending his career with Stuttgart in 2020, leaving many to wonder how prolific he would have been in England.
Ronaldinho
Have Your Say! Which player came close to signing that you would have loved to see turn out for your club? Comment below.
In the summer of 2003, the topic of Brazilian star Ronaldinho’s future dominated the headlines as he attracted interest from Manchester United, Chelsea and Barcelona. The PSG attacker had a choice to make after a £23m bid was accepted, but there was only one destination in his mind.
“It [Man United] almost happened. It was a matter of 48 hours but Sandro Rosell had told me way before I got the offer: 'If I become Barca president, will you come?' I said yes. I told the English I had chosen Barca. It was the right choice," he told FourFourTwo.
The Brazilian superstar spent successful five years in Catalonia, become one of the world’s most revered footballers, before joining Serie A giants AC Milan on a free transfer. He was tipped for a shock move to Blackburn in 2012 after leaving the Rossoneri, but Rovers failed to lure the attacker to Ewood Park, as the elusive Ronaldinho went on to play in Brazil, Mexico and Paraguay.
Franck Ribery
A quick and pacy winger who arguably should have won the Ballon d’Or at least once in his career, it is a shame Premier League fans never got to see Ribery rock up at Old Trafford or Anfield outside of the Champions League.
The talented Frenchman was a target for Chelsea in 2009 and the west London club failed with an offer of £60m plus Jose Bosingwa to lure him to London, as revealed by the player. “[Carlo] Ancelotti already wanted to sign me in 2009 when he was with Chelsea. That means he likes me as a player and that is obviously great,” he told Sport Bild in 2016.
Chelsea fans were left to rue their failure to sign him after watching Ribery terrorise defenders in his 12 years in Germany. Despite his declaration that he would not join another European team in his entire career, Ribery went on to join Fiorentina in 2019 after his release from Bayern and is still playing at the tender age of 39 with Serie A outfit Salernitana.
Wesley Sneijder
The saga of watching Sneijder and Man United go so close to agreeing a transfer before the deal going cold is something that still haunts Red Devils fans. Dutchman Sneijder was a revelation after leaving Real Madrid for Inter Milan, where he excelled under Jose Mourinho.
And United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was thought to have been keen on signing the playmaker in his final years at the club. But the legendary Scot insisted he was never keen on capturing Sneijder, telling the club’s official podcast: ”That’s come up a lot of times but we were never interested in Sneijder. I don't know where that came from but you get a lot of them.”
Was it just a rumour or a case of Ferguson refusing to accept missing out on a target? Either way, Sneijder ended his career in 2019 after playing for Galatasaray, OGC Nice and Al-Gharafa.
Nicolas Gaitan
Even if Sneijder was linked a lot with United, no player has been seemingly been so close to making their Old Trafford move official than Gaitan. For nearly his entire senior career, there was something about the tricky Argentinian winger that made him an ideal target for United.
But he never made it. After joining Benfica in 2010, Gaitan was a name churned through the transfer rumour machine time and time again, and no less than three occasions did United have interest in signing him under David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Mourinho. But each time, he failed to secure a switch — and joined Atletico Madrid in 2016 for £21m.
Revealing the reasons behind his failure to join, Gaitan told Record, via SportWitness: “Once it was because of the work permit. I had no European citizenship and wasn’t a national team player. I used to be called up, but I didn’t play and it was necessary to fulfil a number of games. It didn’t meet these requirements and it wasn’t possible. But if it didn’t happen, it was for some reason.”
David Villa
Having Fernando Torres at his peak was entertaining enough, but his international team-mate Villa once came close to linking up with his compatriot in England after starring for Valencia. The Spaniard is renowned as one of the best strikers of his generation and at the peak of his powers in 2010, Liverpool, Chelsea and United all chased his signature.
But the lure of playing under Pep Guardiola with Lionel Messi at Barcelona proved to be too good an opportunity to turn down and he sealed a £34m switch. Then in 2013, it looked as if Arsenal were frontrunners to sign him after leaving the Catalan giants, before Atletico Madrid swooped for him to snatch Villa from under Arsene Wenger’s nose.
"We were in a lot of meetings and a lot of calls,” Villa told BBC Sport in 2020. “I felt 90% in that moment that I [would] go to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. But at that moment we didn't arrive at the deal, Atletico Madrid arrived and in three or four days fixed everything. I don't know what would have happened if I'd signed for Arsenal.”
Kalidou Koulibaly
Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Kalidou Koulibaly’s career is not that he hasn’t joined a Premier League club, but that he remains a Napoli player after spending nearly every one of eight years in Italy linked elsewhere.
The Senegalese defender was a top target for Chelsea in 2015 as their former boss Mourinho attempted to lure him to Stamford Bridge, but the £80m price tag proved too steep for the Blues. The Portuguese then tried again to clinch his signature at United in 2017 but failed to convince Napoli to sell.
Since then, Liverpool and Manchester City have been linked with the centre-back but a deal has never looked likely. Now 31, Koulibaly appears to be content with life in Italy, although Chelsea are thought to be considering a move for the defender to replace Antonio Rudiger, meaning that move could finally happen this summer.
Leandro Damiao
Under two different managers, Tottenham chased the Brazilian striker who would supposedly take them to new heights. But Damiao never got his dream move to north London — and his career nosedived as a result.
For three years, Damiao was on the verge of joining Tottenham – a transfer saga so long that it continued between the reigns of Harry Redknapp and Andre Villas-Boas. His performances for Brazilian side Internacional had earned him admirers in Europe, with Spurs one of the interested teams, but the move fell through in 2012 after a £15m fee had been agreed.
The striker went on to join Santos, Cruzeiro, Real Betis and Flamengo, but rarely showed his same thirst for goals after suffering a serious knee injury. A brief revival in 2019 saw him move to Japan with Kawasaki Frontale, where he scored against Chelsea in a pre-season fixture, but that is the closest he came to scoring a goal for Tottenham fans.
William Carvalho
Carvalho will always be the one that got away for West Ham, but given they have Declan Rice now, the Hammers ultimately may not be too disappointed.
The Portugal international was long admired by English clubs for his graceful presence on the ball, despite his striking physique, and was often mentioned as a possible target for Arsenal as a youngster. But it was West Ham who came closest to actually getting his signature on the dotted line.
The Hammers made an official bid for the midfielder in the summer of 2017, only for it to lead to a bitter row with president Bruno de Carvalho, who labelled co-owners David Gold and Sullivan “the dildo brothers” after submitting a derisory £7.8m offer up front, rising to £23m in instalments. After the bid was rejected, Carvalho went on to sign for Real Betis where he currently plays and looks unlikely to make the switch to the UK any time soon.
Sergio Ramos
Players often use interest from other clubs as a motivating factor in persuading their employers to hand them a pay rise — and on several occasions, Ramos cunningly used United as a stalking horse to get himself a bigger payday at Real Madrid.
A long-standing interest from the Premier League giants turned the Spaniard’s head on more than one occasion and, in 2015, Ramos came close to sealing a move to United, only to perform a late U-turn and renew his deal with Madrid. In an interview with COPE, he said: "There was an offer from United. I considered changing for a while but Real Madrid was always my priority and there were no economic reasons.”
That turned out to be a smart decision after winning four Champions League titles. After his release from the Spanish champions last summer, Ramos was again backed to join United on a short-term deal, but eventually signed a two-year contract with PSG.
