Most Bizarre Contract Clauses In Football: Oh, you think Barcelona adding a 1 billion euro release clause in Pedri’s new contract was ridiculous? Well, you haven’t seen anything yet. There have been much weirder and much more bizarre contract clauses in football history and we will be bringing you some of them in this article today.
Just hang on and sit tight for this one, because it is about to get real ridiculous.
1. Not the Gunners
When Liverpool signed Roberto Firmino from Hoffenheim and put a 98 million euro release clause in his contract, that surely was not bizarre. But a closer look at that contract and you will see why it was a pretty unusual one.
Liverpool stated that their new striker could be sold to any club for 98 million euros provided that club is not Arsenal. That is to say, the Merseyside club was willing to sell their star striker to even their neighboring rivals, Everton, but surely not Arsenal.
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Our guess is that Liverpool were still mad about that ridiculous bid Arsenal made for Suarez in 2013. You remember that one? Where they bid 40 million and 1 euros for the European Golden Shoe winner.
Well, to be fair to the London club, they just wanted to trigger the Uruguayan’s 40 million euros buy-out clause. But Liverpool found that absolutely ridiculous. And their owner expressed that in a tweet where he asked “what do you think they are smoking over there at the Emirates?”
2. No biting zone
Speaking of Suarez, you know a certain Catalan club eventually snatched up the superstar forward from Anfield. And considering the time they signed him, you could say that Barcelona indeed took a big risk on him.
They signed him in 2014 when he was serving a 4-month ban from any football-related activity, after biting Chiellini at the World Cup that year. And that wasn’t his first rodeo. He had bitten 2 other players before that and even had a racism case earlier.
So, there was a huge risk for Barcelona bringing a player with a not-so-good record over to their camp.
In order to protect themselves a little, they put a little clause in the Uruguayan’s contract. That clause detailed severe punishments for their new number 9 if he bit anybody else. The clause even extended to punishments and fines for any sort of misdemeanor.
And well, that clause seemed to have worked to a treat. Luis Suarez has been a good boy ever since that clause was included. Even after leaving the Catalan giants, he has still been on his best behavior for club and country.
You just have to give FC Barcelona credit for including this weird clause, which has, in a way, helped shape one of the best strikers of this generation.
3. Prior had a little lamb
This one happened so many years ago, but it is still so absolutely ridiculous when you think about it.
When Cadiff signed Spencer Prior from Manchester City, they added some really bizarre clauses to his contract. And they all had one thing or the other to do with sheep. We wonder why.
According to the contract, Prior was to eat the following: fried sheep testicles with salt and lemon, sheep brain with parsley, lemon, and salt; and lamb liver in its own blood, but without salt or lemon.
And if you think all that is weird, wait till you hear the final clause. Take a deep breath for this one. Prior had to have sexual intercourse with a sheep!
Of course, the contract was immediately sanctioned by the FA and PFA. No way were they going to let that fly under their watch.
When asked, the Cardiff City spokesman, Julian Jenkins, confirmed that it was all absolutely true. Those clauses were in his contract. But he also said it was just a fun thing.
What a weird way to catch fun.
4. Football club vs Nightclub
When Ronaldinho left Europe to go play in his hometown, he made a peculiar demand on the club. In 2011, the Brazilian was surely way past his prime, but in Brazil, he was surely still a superstar, one of the best still. So, you would imagine Flamengo were surely going to do anything to have the Brazilian king play for them.
So, when the former Ballon d’Or winner asked his football club for a nightclub clause in his contract, they surely were not going to decline.
Anyone who knew Ronaldinho from his days in Europe knows how much he loves partying. His former teammate even said that Ronaldinho always partied. Win, lose, play well, play badly, the Brazilian would find a way to enjoy himself till late in the night.
Hell, that was one of the reasons Barcelona sold him in 2008. They didn’t want him to influence a certain upcoming Argentinian wizard.
Basically, partying was so important to Ronaldinho that he had to tell Flamengo to put a clause in his contract that allows him to party not once, but at least, twice every week. What a guy!
But when he was to rejoin AC Milan later in his career, they also included some strict clauses in his contract. They banned smoking, drinking, and nightclubbing. Weird that Ronaldinho played for this club, right?
Oh, they also banned extravagant haircuts. Perhaps authorities at AC Milan mistook training camp for military camp.
5. The non-flying Dutchman
Dennis Bergkamp, the scorer of one of the most beautiful goals in Premier League history, is another player who gave his new club some strict conditions before joining.
Dennis, who played in The Netherlands, Italy, and England, had a pretty strange fear and that affected his contract negotiations with Arsenal.
The Dutchman is scared of flying. So, before Arsenal signed him, he insisted that the club include a clause in his contract that allowed him to sit out club trips where they had to use an airplane.
Of course, the London club agreed. And we’re sure that they are more than happy that they did.
6. Your knee, your problem
When Manchester United signed Radamel Falcao from Monaco, they were excited. But they had one little concern. His knee. The Colombian had had a serious injury to his knee earlier in the year, and the Manchester club was weary about that causing issues later.
So, in his contract, they included a clause that allowed the club to terminate his contract and send him back to Monaco if his knee injury reoccurred that season.
Pretty harsh, right? Well, it’s business and everybody is just looking out for their personal interests.
7. Razor, your weight!
Neil Ruddock, very popularly called Razor, used to have big problems with his weight. He would often turn up overweight and managers never liked that.
So, when he joined Liverpool, Graeme Souness, the Reds coach at the time, insisted that the club include a weight clause in his contract. According to the clause, Razor would give up 10% of his salary each time he exceeded 99.8kg.
And guess what! In just a few months, he had given up 10% of his wages 8 times! He just could not watch his weight!
Well, he eventually left the Merseyside club. But when he was to rejoin AC Milan later in his career, they also included some strict clauses in his contract. They banned smoking, drinking, and nightclubbing. Weird that Ronaldinho played for this club, right?
Oh, they also banned extravagant haircuts. Perhaps authorities at AC Milan mistook training camp for military camp.
8. Round of A-Clause
The money paid to lift Neymar from Barcelona in 2017 was not the only shocking thing about that move. Apparently, a clause was included in his contract that allows the Brazilian to earn 375,000 euros per month if he claps to the PSG fans at the end of every game.
Wow. Don’t you wish you were Neymar right now and are being paid to clap? We surely do!
Anyway, PSG came out to clear the air that their number 10 doesn’t earn that bonus for just clapping. He also had to be polite to journalists and reporters, show up to training early, and not bet on competitors.
Even then, these seem like more than fair conditions for a whopping 375k bonus per month.
And oh, remember that Neymar also had a clause in his Barcelona contract that allowed him to bring his friends from Brazil to Spain every 2 months. And the trips were always all expenses paid. Oh, to be Neymar’s friend right now!
9. Good boy clause
Every football fan knows who Mario Balotelli is, and surely, his reputation precedes him. The Italian has been to different clubs around Europe, and his bad boy persona has got him into trouble everywhere.
In fact, the belief is that Balotelli could have gone on to conquer the world if only he was better behaved.
So, when Liverpool signed him from Milan in 2014, they included a clause in his contract which would see him earn a bonus of 1 million pounds if he was sent off on less than 3 occasions.
He was also entitled to a bonus of 50,000 pounds for each goal if he managed to surpass 5 goals in the Premier League or in the Champions League that season.
Guess which bonus the Italian earned that season? We’re pretty sure your guess was the second. But surprisingly, it was the 1 million pound bonus he earned because he managed to not get sent off on up to 3 occasions that season. However, he did not score up to 5 goals.
10. No space
In 1999, Sunderland signed Stefan Schwarz and they immediately put a clause in his contract banning him from travelling to space.
Of course, this didn’t just happen out of the blue. One of Stefan’s advisers had already got him a seat on a commercial flight to space which was to take off in 2002.
But Sunderland were not having it. According to the clause in the contract, a flight to space would immediately invalidate his contract. And well, he agreed. He gave up a chance to leave Earth for an opportunity to play for Sunderland. We don’t know how many people will agree to that in this present day.
