Six players, including Luka Modric and Neymar, said no to coming back for pre-season six times.
Over the past 20 years, a few well-known players have refused to come back for pre-season training because they wanted to push through a summer transfer. So, how did things turn out for them?
Let’s start with Luka Modric, who might be the most surprising name here. In the summer of 2012, Modric wanted to leave Tottenham after other clubs showed interest. He even tried to speed things up by skipping Spurs’ pre-season tour in the United States. Soon after, he said sorry for not joining the team but, after trying to move to Real Madrid, he had to train with the reserves for a while. Eventually, he signed with Real Madrid for about £30 million. Since then, he’s won six Champions League titles, four La Liga championships, and even a Ballon d’Or. Pretty impressive!
Here are some other players who didn’t return for pre-season training.
Raheem Sterling didn’t go on Liverpool’s pre-season trip to Thailand, Australia, and Malaysia because he wanted to push through a transfer to Manchester City. Liverpool had turned down two offers from City, and Sterling had reportedly refused a big contract extension. Finally, Liverpool accepted a £49 million offer. Sterling signed a five-year deal with City and has since scored 131 goals in 339 games, helping win four Premier League titles.
In 2017, Diego Costa was fined two weeks’ wages (about £300,000) by Chelsea for not coming back to pre-season training. The Chelsea boss told Costa he wasn’t part of the team anymore, and Costa felt treated unfairly, saying the club acted like he was a “criminal.” He stayed home in Brazil and later moved to Atletico Madrid for £57 million.
In 2018, Thibaut Courtois missed Chelsea’s pre-season training to try to force a move to Real Madrid. He had done something similar before when he wanted to leave Belgian club Genk for Chelsea. His agent said Courtois wanted the move mainly for family reasons since his kids were living in Spain.
In 2019, Neymar didn’t show up for Paris Saint-Germain’s first day of pre-season after missing Copa America with an ankle injury. PSG fined him £340,000 and said they would take “appropriate action.” Neymar stayed with PSG for four more years before moving to Al Hilal.
That same year, Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny refused to go on the club’s pre-season tour in the USA because he wanted to leave the team. He hoped to return to France and asked Arsenal to end his contract. Arsenal was unhappy with his actions and said they wanted to sort things out quietly. A month later, Koscielny signed with Bordeaux in Ligue 1.
So, while skipping pre-season training is a bold move, these players all managed to make their transfers happen—some with pretty successful careers ahead!