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Football in 2025 is weird.

Six of the most leftfield transfers of the January transfer window: Edwards, Benrahma…

We all know about Omar Marmoush big money move to Manchester City, Marcus Rashford’s loan to Aston Villa and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s arrival at PSG. But what about the downright weird transfers of the January 2025 window?

Away from the headline-making moves, there have been tons of transfers that have gone under the radar. And others that show football in 2025 is getting downright weird.

Here are six leftfield transfers from the January transfer window that messed with our head, one way or another.

Lloyd Kelly – Newcastle United to Juventus

This one has not yet been announced at the time of writing but it sounds like a done deal.

Eddie Howe’s Magpies have made a considerable profit on the defender, who they signed on a free transfer after his contract at Bournemouth expired at the end of last season. Precisely what the Old Lady have seen in his 302 minutes of Premier League minutes on the periphery of Newcastle’s 2024-25 campaign to sanction a reported £20million move leaves us feeling perplexed.

As for Newcastle, these kind of creative yet sensible PSR-balancing manoeuvres aren’t quite what we envisaged when they became richer than God.

Marcus Edwards – Sporting to Burnley

We’ve seen players trade European football for the Championship before. Ruben Neves was the youngest player to captain a side in the Champions League. He left his boyhood club Porto to join Wolves, then in the Championship.

But that was a Wolves side that were destined for the Premier League, spending ambitiously. Sure enough they finished in the top half straight away, making it to a Europa League quarter-final within a couple of years.

There are no such guarantees for Marcus Edwards at Burnley. Scott Parker’s Clarets have no guarantee of promotion, and they’ll likely be in for a grind if they make it back to the Premier League.

To be fair to the talented English playmaker, he’s on the fringes at Sporting, with a grand total of three starts in all competitions this season. And there’s a logic in Burnley banking on an extra bit of creativity to get them up – they keep clean sheets for fun, so turning goalless draws into narrow wins is a solid formula for success.

We’re not buying the shared Tottenham history angle, though. Edwards would have been 14 when Parker left Spurs for Fulham back in 2013.

Jhon Duran – Aston Villa to Al-Nassr

The most expensive transfer made by any club in world football, you’ll no doubt be aware of this one.

Saudi Pro League clubs have been ostentatious in the way they’ve splashed the cash since the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo two years ago, but this one takes the biscuit.

The Colombian has built up an outrageous highlights reel from his limited opportunities so far this season, but a £64million fee for a player who has made seven Premier League starts and scored 12 goals is completely bonkers, let’s be honest.

Then you consider the fact that Al-Nassr are spending shedloads on Ronaldo’s wages and we’ve seen little evidence that Duran can play alongside another No.9. Baffling all round.


READ NEXT: 12 January signings that changed their club’s season: Fernandes, Van Dijk…

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Gabriel Carvalho – Internacional to Al Qadsiah 

Technically this one isn’t a January 2025 transfer, but the deal was agreed this month for the highly-rated Brazilian teenager to leave his boyhood club and join Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah in the summer after he turns 18.

It’s the kind of deal that’s become commonplace in football in recent years. We’ve seen it with Vinicius Junior, Endrick and inbound Chelsea wonderkid Estevao Willian. Top European clubs acting fast to snap up the hottest talent in Brazil and agreeing terms for them to make the move across the Atlantic once permitted.

But now the Saudi Pro League are muscling in on that racket. Signing ageing superstars is one thing, but top young South American talent is another thing. Are the tectonic plates of football shifting or will this just be a flash in the pan? Watch this space.

Transfers summer 2025 already agreed featuring Willian Estevao and Luka Vuskovic

READ: 5 top transfers already agreed for summer 2025: Estevao, Vuskovic, Zubimendi…

Alvaro Morata – AC Milan to Galatasaray

On the one hand, this ticks a lot of the right boxes for a classic Turkish Super Lig signing.

Big European name? Check. Wrong side of 32? Check. Has represented an array of top clubs? Check.

There’s extra logic in that a half-season loan makes sense for the Super Lig champions, given that star man and current Golden Boot holder Mauro Icardi will miss the remainder of the campaign with an ACL injury.

But it’s only six months ago that Morata was captaining Spain to Euro 2024 glory. He’s barely been at the San Siro long enough for AC Milan to decide to cut their losses already. We thought a fresh start in Italy might signal a long-awaited resurgence for the striker.

Evidently not. We fear for Morata and those puppy dog eyes if he misses chances in the white-hot cauldron of an Istanbul derby. Gulp.

Said Benrahma – Lyon to NEOM

As mentioned above, by now we’ve become accustomed to Saudi Arabia muscling in on the transfer market. All thirty of the Saudi Pro League’s most expensive signings have taken place over the past four transfer windows.

So there’s nothing surprising at all about Benrahma going out there, given the trajectory of his career in recent years. But it’s the fact the winger is going to NEOM, a club in the second tier, that’s notable.

If you’d told us five years ago that’s where he’d up, back when he was tearing the Championship a new one alongside Ollie Watkins and Bryan Mbeumo at Brentford, we’d never have believed you.