Tottenham Hotspur has carried out catchy signatures in its history, Daniel Levy spending a lot in recent times.
However, the Spurs have also missed the opportunity to bring world -class players in northern London, Eberechi Eze being the last Tottenham transfer to fail. While an agreement was about to be finalized, the ferocious rival of Arsenal burst out and poached the offensive midfielder under the nose of the spurs.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Eze. Tottenham was placed at the post or rejected by a plethora of legends, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Kylian Mbappe.
10 Tottenham Hotspur superstars about to sign
10
Cristiano Ronaldo
Former Tottenham screening and player, Ronny Rosenthal, urged the Spurs to recruit Cristiano Ronaldo when he arrived at Sporting CP.
However, the Spurs did not listen to, Manchester United having won the Portuguese superstar for just over 12 million pounds sterling in 2003.
“There are hundreds of players that if the clubs had listened to … One of those I will never forget is Cristiano Ronaldo, whom I saw because I was going a lot in Portugal at that time.”
9
Kylian Mbappé
In 2015, a teenage striker by the name of Kylian Mbappe impressed the Spurs chiefs for Monaco during a clash in the Europa League against Tottenham.
Those in northern London had an eye on the Frenchman and sought to bring him to the club, but they quickly realized that he was out of reach, Mbappe rather choosing PSG.
8
Diego Maradona
Tottenham’s legend, Teddy Sheringham, had two passages with the Spurs and once revealed that the club was in talks to sign Diego Maradona.
Ossie Ardiles directed the Spurs in 1993-1994 and once said to Sheringham that he sought to associate him in attack with Maradona.
“He was like ‘Diego Maradona’, and I answered ‘Ossie, Ossie, really!? And you?’ I said to myself “do it,” he said ‘I am in discussion with him right now’, and I said to myself ‘my god, do it, it would be great to play with him.’ “
7
Rivaldo
Levy could not recruit the Brazilian Rivaldo icon in 2002 when he was looking for a new club after leaving Barcelona.
Manuel Auset, friend and lawyer of rivaldo, said that the Spurs had offered the player then 30 years old to join the Premier League, but that he had rather chosen AC Milan.
“Tottenham offered him the chance to play in the Premier League and there was a meeting with me, an agent and Mr. Levy. Then we went to Milan, spoke about it and reached an agreement.”
6
Eden Hazard
Now considered a Chelsea legend, Eden Hazard could very well have been a Tottenham player when leaving Lille in 2012.
The former spurs coach, Clive Allen, admitted that the Belgian star was “eager to come to Tottenham”, but rather chose to head to Stamford Bridge.
“The chief recruiter and I met Hazard and he wanted to come to Tottenham at the time but, in the end, he decided to join Chelsea.”
5
Bruno Fernandes
Mauricio Pocsettino and Tottenham made a concrete effort to recruit Bruno Fernandes from Sporting CP in 2019.
Fernandes, who finally moved to England with Man Utd, once revealed that he was “really angry” that his transfer to the Spurs failed after being convinced to join him by Pochettino.
“Obviously, I wanted to go to the Premier League. It was the manager, Mauricio Pochettino, who wanted me to be there. It was a good offer but Sporting did its best to keep me.
“The president spoke to me but he spoke to me the bad day. It was the day after the decision to refuse Tottenham’s offer and I was really angry.”
4
Sadio Mané
Tottenham and Pochettino made Sadio Mané their main target in 2016, but the Spurs were overwhelmed by Liverpool.
The Reds paid 34 million pounds sterling for Mane, who was going to become a legend of Anfield, Tottenham using the money that would have been devoted to the Moussa Sissoko midfielder instead.
|
Sadio Mané’s assessment against Tottenham |
|
|---|---|
|
Victories |
9 |
|
Prints |
5 |
|
Losses |
2 |
|
Goals |
3 |
|
Aid |
2 |
3
Virgile Van Dijk
Tottenham had Virgil Van Dijk on his restricted list of targets as a central defender in 2015, while the Dutchman was still in Celtic books.
Instead of signing Van Dijk, the Spurs brought Toby Alderweireld from Atletico Madrid, Van Dijk signing for Southampton the same year.
2
Jack Grealish
At one point, Tottenham thought he was on the right track to recruit Jack Grenish from Aston Villa for only 25 million pounds sterling.
Grealish was not happy with the failure of the transfer to the Spurs in 2018, however, three years later, he would have cost Manchester City a British record of 100 million pounds sterling.
1
Luis Díaz
Tottenham was in pole position and put pressure to recruit Luis Diaz from FC Porto during the transfer window of January 2022 before Liverpool diverts a transfer.
The Reds paid a guaranteed sum of 37.5 million pounds sterling for the Colombian international, which would win the Premier League in Anfield before being sold with Bayern Munich.
