The story of how Blackburn chairman Jack Walker once advised Kenny Dalglish “why do you need Zinedine Zidane when you’ve got Tim Sherwood?” is an infamous one – perhaps, the greatest transfer gaffe of all time.
But Rovers weren’t the only English outfit that rejected the future 2002 World Cup winner – a year after the Walker fiasco, Zidane was offered to Newcastle for a miserly £1.2million.
Bizarrely, manager Kevin Keegan deemed the Frenchman good enough for Division One, let alone the Premier League, and quickly turned his attentions to alternative targets.
Just months later, Zidane moved to Juventus, where he’d go on to become the greatest player of his generation. He won two Serie A titles at the San Siro, before going to Real Madrid and lifting the 2002 Champions League.
In 2011 – a year after the infamous headbutt during the World Cup final – Zidane was crowned the Champions League’s greatest player of the last twenty years. Nice one, Kev.