It’s transfer season in Europe and it’s time, not only to secure generous salaries and steep commissions, but also to make the wildest demands to test the patience of clubs.
Contracts are truly mind-boggling in terms of demands. From Messi to Lewandowski or the Japanese Honda, everyone demanded, in writing, whims that are out of all proportion. Beware of the most unlikely clauses… to which the teams ended up giving in:
1. The independence clause
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo revealed Lionel Messi’s amazing contract, which included payments of 555 million euros over four years. No, that’s not the unexpected clause, no cran.
According to the media, the contract detailed a lot of demands, among them an agreement to learn to speak Catalan, ‘adopt appropriate personal behavior and rhythm of life’… what can be considered ‘appropriate’ and what not? But in the intermission, an unexpected detail: he could leave the club for free if Catalonia declared its independence. What does that have to do with football? Ask Laporta, the president who authorized that jewel.
2. The ‘Let it be’ clause.
Before wanting to go to FC Barcelona, Robert Lewandowski had everything ready to sign with Real Madrid (his thing was Spain, clearly), in exchange for 10 million euros per season and an important list of requests to prevent the famous Polish daredevil from injured off the field.
Skiing, paragliding, climbing, boating and even riding a motorcycle were expressly prohibited in the contract… that’s why he went to Bayern.
3. The ‘there’s your… painted house’ clause
German striker Giuseppe Reina signed with Arminia Bielefeld in 1996 and demanded that the club build him a house for each year of his contract.
And they complied, only he was not specific in his request: they built him a house made of Lego during the three years of the bond.
4. The ‘Master Chef’ clause
Congolese Rolf-Christel Guie-Mien moved from Karlsruher to Eintracht Frankfurt in 1999, but the reality is that his requests did not seem too far-fetched.
In fact, he only made one request: that his new club pay for his wife to have cooking lessons. Although the German media tried to confirm compliance with the demand, it was not possible to contact Mrs. Guie-Mien.
5. The ‘Houston, we’ve got problems’ clause
Sweden’s Stefan Schwarz signed for Sunderland in 1999, but the club’s owners got suspicious and made him sign a formal commitment.
CEO John Flicking told The Sun: “One of Schwarz’s advisers actually got one of the places on the commercial flights into space, which were to take place in 2002. And we were worried that he wanted to take Stefan with him. So we thought it would be better to fix things now rather than at the time of the flight.” That is why they forced him to swear that he would not fly into space during the term of the contract with the club… which was relegated to the earthly second division in 2003.
6. The clause ‘The bodyguard’
Keisuke Honda was the first great Japanese soccer star. At least the most media. And when he was already finishing his career, he ended up at Botafogo, in January 2020.
But his friends told him about the dangers in Rio de Janeiro, the insecurity and the crimes, which made him demand, among other protection measures. an armored vehicle to move around the city. Botafogo signed delighted.
