{"id":24652,"date":"2025-10-07T16:43:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T20:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T16:43:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T20:43:53","slug":"the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/","title":{"rendered":"The best players such as Ronaldo and Mbappe who have been close to signing Tottenham Hotspur"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#10_Tottenham_Hotspur_Superstars_are_coming_soon\" >10 Tottenham Hotspur Superstars are coming soon<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#10_Cristiano_Ronaldo\" >10  \n         \n                            Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#9_Killian_Mbappe\" >9  \n         \n                            Killian Mbappe<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#8_Diego_Maradona\" >8  \n         \n                            Diego Maradona<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#7_Ribord\" >7  \n         \n                            Ribord<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#6_Eden_Hazard\" >6  \n         \n                            Eden Hazard<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#5_Bruno_Fernandez\" >5  \n         \n                            Bruno Fernandez<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#4_Sadio_Manet\" >4  \n         \n                            Sadio Manet<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#3_Virgil_van_Dijk\" >3  \n         \n                            Virgil van Dijk<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#2_Jack_Greerish\" >2  \n         \n                            Jack Greerish<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/the-best-players-such-as-ronaldo-and-mbappe-who-have-been-close-to-signing-tottenham-hotspur\/#1_Lewis_Diaz\" >1  \n         \n                            Lewis Diaz<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Tottenham Hotspur has several eye-catching deals in its history, including Daniel Levy&#8217;s recent spending heavily.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<p>However, the Spurs also missed bringing world-class players to North London, and Eberesi Eze&#8217;s move to Tottenham was a failure. As the contract was nearing, strong rival Arsenal rushed over to pull out the offensive midfielder right in front of the Spurs.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it wasn&#8217;t just Ez. Tottenham has been nominated and rejected for the post by numerous legends, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Killian Mbappe.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"10-superstars-tottenham-hotspur-nearly-signed\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"10_Tottenham_Hotspur_Superstars_are_coming_soon\"><\/span>\n            <strong>10 Tottenham Hotspur Superstars are coming soon<\/strong><br \/>\n    <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"cristiano-ronaldo\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"10_Cristiano_Ronaldo\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">10 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Cristiano Ronaldo<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>    Former Tottenham scout and player Ronnie Rosenthal had urged the Spurs to sign when Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Sporting CP.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Spurs were unheard, and Manchester United won the Portuguese superstar in 2003 for just over \u00a312 million.<\/p>\n<section class=\"emaki-custom-block emaki-custom-pullquote\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<div class=\"emaki-custom pullquote\" id=\"custom_block_9\">\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p><em>&#8220;There are hundreds of players I wish the club would listen&#8230; One player I will never forget is Cristiano Ronaldo. I saw it because I used to go to Portugal at the time.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 id=\"kylian-mbappe\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"9_Killian_Mbappe\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">9 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Killian Mbappe<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In 2015, a teenage forward named Killian Mbappe impressed Monaco&#8217;s Spurs leaders in the Europa League match against Tottenham.<\/p>\n<p>People in North London were trying to monitor the French players&#8217; movements and take them to the club, but quickly realized he was out of reach, and instead Mbappe chose PSG.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"diego-maradona\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"8_Diego_Maradona\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">8 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Diego Maradona<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Tottenham legend Teddy Shellingham has been with the Spurs twice and has revealed that the club is in contract negotiations with Diego Maradona.<\/p>\n<p>Ozzy Ardilest oversaw the Spurs from 1993 to 1994 and once told Sheringham he was considering partnering with Maradona on the offensive side.<\/p>\n<section class=\"emaki-custom-block emaki-custom-pullquote\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<div class=\"emaki-custom pullquote\" id=\"custom_block_19\">\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p><em>&#8220;He was like, &#8216;Diego Maradona&#8217; and I was like, &#8216;Ossy, oh, oh, really? What about you?'&#8221; I thought, &#8216;Do it, give it a go.&#8217; He said, &#8216;I&#8217;m currently in negotiations with him,&#8217; and I was like, &#8216;Oh my god, give it a go, it would be great if I could play with him.&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 id=\"rivaldo\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"7_Ribord\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">7 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Ribord<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>After leaving Barcelona in 2002, Levi missed a contract with Brazilian icon Rivaldo while searching for a new club.<\/p>\n<p>Ribord&#8217;s friend and lawyer Manuel Orsett said the Spurs offered the then 30-year-old to move to the Premier League, but Ribord chose AC Milan instead.<\/p>\n<section class=\"emaki-custom-block emaki-custom-pullquote\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<div class=\"emaki-custom pullquote\" id=\"custom_block_24\">\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p><em>&#8220;Tottenham gave him a chance to play in the Premier League and we had a meeting with me, my agent and Mr. Levi. Then we went to Milan where we discussed and reached an agreement.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 id=\"eden-hazard\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"6_Eden_Hazard\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">6 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Eden Hazard<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Eden Hazard, now remembered as a Chelsea legend, could have easily become a Tottenham player when he left Lille in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Former Spurs coach Clive Allen admitted that the Belgian star was &#8220;eager to come to Tottenham,&#8221; but said he chose to head to Stamford Bridge instead.<\/p>\n<section class=\"emaki-custom-block emaki-custom-pullquote\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<div class=\"emaki-custom pullquote\" id=\"custom_block_29\">\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p><em>&#8220;The Chief Scout and I met Hazard, who was eager to come to Tottenham at the time, but ultimately decided to join Chelsea.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 id=\"bruno-fernandes\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_Bruno_Fernandez\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">5 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Bruno Fernandez<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham made concrete efforts to sign Bruno Fernandez from Sporting CP in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Fernandez, who eventually moved to England with Man United, once revealed that he was &#8220;really angry&#8221; that his move to Spurs failed after being persuaded by manager Pochettino.<\/p>\n<section class=\"emaki-custom-block emaki-custom-pullquote\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<div class=\"emaki-custom pullquote\" id=\"custom_block_34\">\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p><em>&#8220;Of course I wanted to go to the Premier League. Manager Mauricio Pochettino was the one who wanted me to be in the Premier League. It was a good offer, but Sporting did his best to keep me there.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p>&#8220;The chairman spoke to me, but the day we spoke was wrong. It was the day after they decided to reject the offer from Tottenham, so I was really mad.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 id=\"sadio-mane\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_Sadio_Manet\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">4 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Sadio Manet<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In 2016, Tottenham and Pochettino targeted Sadio Mane to the top, but the Spurs lost to Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p>The Reds would have paid \u00a334 million to Mane, who would later become Anfield legend, and Tottenham would have instead used it to acquire midfielder Musa Sisoko.<\/p>\n<div class=\"table-container\">\n<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"1\" cellspacing=\"1\" style=\"\" align=\"\" summary=\"\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"2\" style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>Sadio Manet&#8217;s record against Tottenham<\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>victory<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>draw<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>loss<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>the goal<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>assist<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"virgil-van-dijk\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Virgil_van_Dijk\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">3 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Virgil van Dijk<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Tottenham had Virgil van Dijk on the shortlist for centre defender in 2015, when the Dutchman was still with Celtic.<\/p>\n<p>However, instead of signing with Van Dijk, the Spurs acquired Toby Alderweireld from Atletico Madrid, and in the same year van Dijk signed with Southampton.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jack-grealish\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Jack_Greerish\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">2 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Jack Greerish<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>At one point, Tottenham thought he was planning to acquire Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for just \u00a325 million.<\/p>\n<p>Grealish was not satisfied with the 2018 failure to join the Spurs, but three years later he ended up paying Manchester City a then-British record of \u00a3100 million.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"luis-diaz\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Lewis_Diaz\"><\/span>\n            <span class=\"item-num\">1 <\/span><br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n                            <strong>Lewis Diaz<\/strong><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n       <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Tottenham was in pole position and pushed for the signing of Luis Diaz from FC Porto in the January 2022 transfer market until Liverpool hijacked the transfer.<\/p>\n<p>The Reds paid the Colombian national team a guarantee fee of \u00a337.5 million, won the Premier League title at Anfield before being sold to Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tottenham Hotspur has several eye-catching deals in its history, including Daniel Levy&#8217;s recent spending heavily. However, the Spurs also missed bringing world-class players to North London, and Eberesi Eze&#8217;s move to Tottenham was a failure. As the contract was nearing, strong rival Arsenal rushed over to pull out the offensive midfielder right in front of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2689,40,2177,1469,881,910,380,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-24652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-close","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hotspur","11":"tag-mbappe","12":"tag-players","13":"tag-ronaldo","14":"tag-signing","15":"tag-tottenham"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}