It’s quite common for football clubs to sign players based on specific qualities, but what you might not hear so much about is the weird but funny reasons why they turned down some really good players. In this article we’ll talk about Chelsea football club and six times they’ve rejected players for ridiculous reasons.
Kylian Mbappé
Currently one of the best wingers in the world, Mbappé is known for his pace, skills, goal scoring ability and basically everything you would want in a winger. Well, apparently not everything if you’re Chelsea FC. At the age of 13 Mbappé had a trial at Chelsea who were impressed by his abilities on the ball, but still turned down the chance to sign him. The reason being that he couldn’t defend.
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Despite all he was able to do with the ball, they really turned down the chance to sign the current best young winger in the world for peanuts because of what he couldn’t do without the ball. Very weird! His mother was quite upset about what happened and needless to say, Chelsea’s request for a second trial was quickly turned down and when you consider what he’s achieved since then, it’s safe to say he made the right choice.
Sergio Aguero
Last December, Aguero announced his retirement from football, bowing out as a Manchester City legend and one of the greatest strikers of all time. But did you know that he could have become a Chelsea legend instead? Here’s what we mean – In 2009 while at Atletico Madrid, Aguero played against Chelsea in the Champions League and scored two goals against them, earning the attention of the English club. Those goals added to the fact that he was a highly rated youngster at the time.
It caused Chelsea to show interest in signing him the following summer, but then opted against it. Former Chelsea winger Joe Cole later revealed that chelsea decided against signing Aguero due to his body shape. Really! What does that even mean? Well, it’s safe to say that Chelsea weren’t wary enough of his future threat to them and they paid the price in the years to come. Aguero would later join their English rivals Manchester City and go on to score even more goals against them.
As a matter of fact, within his 10 years at City he created a new record for the highest number of goals a single player has scored against Chelsea. Their past really came back to haunt them.
Andrea Pirlo
The veteran midfielder is another player who could have been signed by Chelsea, but wasn’t. However unlike Mbappé and Aguero who were turned down as youngsters, Pirlo was turned down because he was too old. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration because technically both Pirlo and chelsea turned down each other and the player wasn’t too old in the actual sense. But to understand it better, here’s a quick backstory.
In 2009, Manager Carlo Ancelotti left AC Milan for Chelsea and wanted to bring Piro who had just turned 30 at the time along with him to Stamford Bridge. All parties were fine with the transfer until Chelsea stated that they could only offer him a one-year deal because they had a policy against offering more than one year deals to players in their 30s. As might be expected, Pirlo wasn’t willing to accept the offer.
Related: 6 footballers who used to beg for food in the streets.
Chelsea remained adamant that 30 year olds were old players and hence the deal fell through. Pirlo would go on to play for six more seasons before retiring at Juventus in 2016, signing off his successful career with the Champions League final.
Declan Rice
Unlike the first three on this list, Rice was a player Chelsea already owned, but then released for free. The West Ham midfielder was formerly a part of their academy, but was released at the age of 14 because of his physicality. The club decided to let him go because they considered him not tall enough compared to his peers in the academy.
Despite what you might be thinking right now, it was actually an academy for football and not basketball or wrestling. Well, that’s a decision they probably regret because now they’re interested in getting him back and he has a transfer value of around £100 million.
It means they would have to pay that amount to get back the player they released for free. With that asking price, guess we can say it will be a tall order getting back the man they didn’t consider tall enough.
Kevin De Bruyne
Currently regarded by many as the best player in the Premier League, KDB as he’s popularly called, was a chelsea player for two years – a period in which he played only a few games for them. KDB joined Chelsea in January 2012 from Genk, but spent the next one and a half seasons out on loan before returning to Chelsea.
He expected plenty of playing time on his return, but that wasn’t to be as he ended up playing less than five games in six months and was then sold in January 2014 following what was described as a personality clash with the coach Jose Mourinho due to his demand for playing time. Picture it this way, KDB walks into Jose’s office on one morning in December and says “I want more playing time.” Jose replies, “you can’t have more playing time.” KDB insists I deserve more playing time, Jose replies, “no you don’t. You’re not good enough.”
We’re guessing that’s what personality clash looked like back in 2013. After that conversation, they didn’t really say much to each other. KDB didn’t play much either and by January, he was off to Wolfsburg. He was then signed by Manchester City and has now scored no less than five goals against Chelsea in the league – the highest that any of their former players has scored against them. Two of those goals turned out to be match winning goals. Guess it’s safe to say that he’s been taking that personality clash a little too personal.
Mohamed Salah
Just like De Bruyne, Mo Salah is also regarded by many as the best player in the Premier League, but that’s just one of a few things the two have in common. In addition to their best player comparisons, they both played for Chelsea under Mourinho and were coincidentally released for similar reasons. When Salah joined Chelsea in 2014, he hoped to secure a regular place in the starting lineup.
But after a year, that just wasn’t happening and so his relationship with Mourinho fell into decline. He was then sent out on two loan spells before eventually leaving the club on a permanent deal in 2016 only to return to England one year later when Liverpool came calling. Since his return, he has scored four goals against Chelsea so far and looks set to score even more in the future.
Are there other players who were rejected for more ridiculous reasons? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
