Twenty years ago, Ashley Cole completed a deadline-day move from Arsenal to Chelsea, with William Gallas going the other way as part of the deal. It remains one of the most bitter transfers in Premier League history, with Cole nicknamed “Cashley” by furious Arsenal fans who felt betrayed.
Here are a list of players who crossed football’s fiercest divides.
Sol Campbell – (Tottenham to Arsenal, 2001)
Campbell walked out of his contract and straight into Arsenal’s arms on a free transfer, having spent the summer publicly insisting he was staying at Spurs.
He went on to win two Premier League titles, including the unbeaten “Invincibles” campaign of 2003/04, and three FA Cups in five seasons at Highbury.
Campbell also scored in the 2006 Champions League final defeat to Barcelona, the only Arsenal player to find the net that night.
Robin van Persie – (Arsenal to Manchester United, 2012)
Arsenal’s captain left for Old Trafford for £24 million, the first direct Arsenal-to-United transfer since 1987.
He didn’t waste any time repaying the fee, scoring 26 Premier League goals to win the Golden Boot and fire United to the title in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge, United’s 20th English championship.
Emmanuel Adebayor – (Arsenal to Manchester City, 2009)
£25 million, sealed in infamy when he scored against Arsenal and sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate.
Despite the fanfare around his arrival, Adebayor never actually won a trophy during his time at City, managing 15 goals in 34 Premier League appearances before falling out of favour and leaving on loan in 2011, just before the club’s breakthrough FA Cup and title wins.
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Samir Nasri – (Arsenal to Manchester City, 2011)
£24 million, and drew extra fire for saying City’s fans were “more passionate” than Arsenal’s. Nasri made 176 appearances for City, scoring 27 goals, and won two Premier League titles, two League Cups and a Community Shield, including a crucial goal in the dramatic 2013/14 title-clinching win over West Ham.
Carlos Tevez – (Manchester United to Manchester City, 2009)
£25.5 million, the first direct move between the two Manchester clubs since 1999. Tevez scored 74 goals in 148 appearances for City, won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2010/11, and lifted the FA Cup in 2011 before helping City to their first Premier League title in 2011/12.
Luis Figo – (Barcelona to Real Madrid, 2000)
A then-world-record fee of €60 million, an act so unforgivable to Barça fans that a pig’s head was later thrown at him at Camp Nou. Figo won two La Liga titles with Real Madrid, in 2001 and 2003, and the 2002 Champions League, and picked up the Ballon d’Or just months into his spell at the Bernabéu.
Robert Lewandowski – (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, 2014)
A free transfer that sparked such fury his agent considered hiring extra security for him. Lewandowski went on to score 312 goals in 384 appearances for Bayern, winning eight consecutive Bundesliga titles and completing the treble in 2019/20 with 55 goals in all competitions that season alone.
Mario Götze – (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, 2013, then back again, 2016)
Götze left Dortmund for €37 million at just 21, then made the journey back the other way three years later for €22 million. In between, he won three consecutive Bundesliga titles with Bayern, along with two DFB-Pokal trophies, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Andrea Pirlo – (AC Milan to Juventus, 2011)
After a decade at Milan and two Champions League titles, Pirlo left on a free transfer when Milan judged him past his best. He went on to win four Serie A titles at Juventus and was named Serie A Player of the Year three years running, a record that still stands.
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Hakan Çalhanoğlu – (AC Milan to Inter Milan, 2021)
A free transfer widely described as one of the most controversial cross-city moves in Milan derby history. Çalhanoğlu has played more than 200 times for Inter and scored more than 45 goals, helping them win the Scudetto and make two UEFA Champions League finals.
Honourable mentions
David Luiz – (Chelsea to Arsenal, 2019)
A deadline-day move worth £8 million, taking Luiz from one London rival to another. Past his peak, Luiz’s time at Arsenal went down better than some of the other moves on this list.
Adrien Rabiot – (PSG to Marseille, 2024)
A PSG academy graduate with 227 appearances and six league titles for the club, Rabiot returned to France as a free agent from Juventus and signed for PSG’s fiercest rival, infuriating supporters he’d once played in front of.
Michael Owen – (Newcastle to Manchester United, 2009)
Although not a direct rival, Owen’s free transfer to the Red Devils was the final straw that alienated the boyhood Liverpool player from Reds supporters for good.
Fernando Torres – (Liverpool to Chelsea, 2011)
£50 million on deadline day, a British transfer record at the time, breaking the record Andy Carroll had set only hours earlier when Liverpool bought him as Torres’s replacement.
Torres never rediscovered the form that had made him one of Europe’s most feared strikers at Anfield, managing 20 goals in 110 appearances for Chelsea, but he did win the Champions League in 2012 and the Europa League in 2013.
Juan Mata -(Chelsea to Manchester United, 2014)
£37.1 million in January, a club-record fee for United at the time, beating the £30.75 million they’d paid for Dimitar Berbatov in 2008.
Mata had been Chelsea’s Player of the Year in each of his two full seasons there, and went on to score 48 goals in 249 appearances across his time at Old Trafford, winning the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League.
Mats Hummels – (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, 2016, then back again, 2019)
€35 million, then €30.5 million the other way three years later. At Dortmund he’d won the Bundesliga in 2010/11 and the domestic double the following season, then reached the 2013 Champions League final. At Bayern he added three consecutive Bundesliga titles and a DFB-Pokal before returning to Dortmund to finish his career.
Kylian Mbappé – (Monaco to PSGt)
PSG spent €180 million a teenage Kylian Mbappe, one of the biggest transfers in football history. Mbappé went on to become PSG’s all-time record scorer, overtaking Edinson Cavani, and won six Ligue 1 titles with the club before leaving for Real Madrid in 2024.
Antoine Griezmann – (Atlético Madrid to Barcelona, 2019, then back to Atlético, 2021)
Griezmann broke Atletico fans’ hearts after his €120 million move to Barcelona. His time at Barca brought one major trophy, the 2021 Copa del Rey, before he went back to Atlético.
Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
