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When you combine extreme talent, boatloads of money, and the adoration of millions of fans around the world, it’s not too surprising when footballers develop sizeable egos that need massaging.

Warming the bench when you’re on a rumoured £385 000 a week is certainly going to sting for arguably the second-greatest footballer that’s ever lived, for example.

These days, some of the game’s biggest names often run their contracts down and secure massive signing-on fees when transferring clubs, arguing that they’ve saved their new team paying a transfer fee.

We may never know the exact details of the contract renewal Kylian Mbappé signed at PSG but you can bet there was a very enticing renewal fee carrot dangled to prevent him from leaving for Real Madrid.

For others, the carrot can be certain strange clauses written into their contracts. The Daily Mail has picked 10 outrageous contract demands from years gone by, starting with former Cameroon and Barcelona superstar Samuel Eto’o:

Eto’o was one of European football’s deadliest strikers in the 2000s, so it was a major coup for Anzhi Makhachkala when they signed him in 2011. He just had one small problem he needed to solve – he didn’t want to live in Dagestan where the team are based.

As a result, he told the club he wanted a private jet to allow him to fly to Moscow and live there.

This meant that he needed to be flown 1,200 miles just to train with his team-mates, but Anzhi agreed to his demand, and kept hold of Eto’o for two years.

He clearly wasn’t much fussed about his environmental footprint.

His former Barcelona teammate, Ronaldinho (pictured right up top), has been in the headlines over the past few years for all the wrong reasons. In 2020, he spent five months living under house arrest in Paraguay after he tried to enter the country with a forged passport.

Back in his playing days, he was certainly not confined to staying at home, especially when he returned to Brazil in 2011 to play for Flamengo:

He ordered the Brazilian outfit to insert a clause in his contract that permitted him to party twice a week. They obliged, and Ronaldinho continued to deliver when he played, scoring 19 goals in 44 appearances for the team.

Diego Maradona would have scoffed at only being given permission to jol twice a week. Watch his doccie on Netflix and you’ll understand.

Notorious bad boy Paul Gascoigne was on the radar of England’s top clubs in the late 1980s. He eventually signed for Spurs in 1988 but he took some convincing:

Known for his ‘cheeky-chappy’ personality, Gascoigne told Spurs that he wanted them to buy his dad a new house and a new car, while also sorting his sister out with a sunbed.

The north London club decided they could not afford to miss out on signing the mercurial talent, and agreed to Gascoigne’s demands.

Gazza, as he’s affectionately known, has struggled with alcohol addiction since retiring but appears to be doing reasonably well at present.

We’ll finish with less of a household name, German Giuseppe Reina:

Reina arrived at German side Arminia Bielefeld in 1996, but only agreed to sign on the dotted line if the club agreed to build him a new house for every year that he stayed with them.

He would quickly find out that the devil is in the detail. Reina did not stipulate the size or type of house that he wanted, which Arminia used to their advantage as they sent him a house made of Lego each year.

Despite Reina ending up a house short every 12 months, he actually played for Arminia Bielefeld for three full seasons.

The issue of odd or extravagant contract demands is back in the headlines due to a Spanish newspaper leaking details of Barcelona’s contract negotiations with Lionel Messi in 2020.

Messi’s demands included that he wanted his release clause all but done away with (he requested a symbolic €10 000), a set of private boxes at Barcelona’s stadium for his and Luis Suarez’s families, guarantees related to wage deferments, and backdated commission paid to his brother for his work as an agent.

He would eventually reach a deal with Barcelona, including a 50% pay cut, but the Catalan club’s financial woes meant it could not afford to register him with LaLiga and he was forced to move to PSG.

Before we go, the Ronaldinho mention reminded me of this trailer released last week:

Ronaldo. The Phenomenon. A documentary. Released next month. Wow.pic.twitter.com/g1ltWvxMX0

— MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) September 22, 2022

[source:dmail]