10 Players You Didn't Know Aston Villa Almost Signed
3. Radamel Falcao
Everyone by now knows the story of how Aston Villa were offered a River Plate striker by the name of Falcao, but turned him down and went on to pursue Emile Heskey. And every Villa fan will continue to hang their head in shame at the behaviour of their deeply careless club as a result as long as the striker continues to bang the goals in for club and country. The two strikers careers went in different directions, with Falcao winning two league titles, five domestic cups, and back-to-back Europa League titles, and Emile Heskey continuing to be Emile Heskey. But considering hed scored just 10 goals in 31 league games for River in the two seasons prior to Aston Villas interest, its perhaps forgivable that they overlooked the Colombian. Now the world-class striker is being linked with the likes of Chelsea and Real Madrid for a big-money deal.
Crippy Cooke, 23, is a freelance Football Writer contributing to What Culture. He's had work featured on Zoo, MSN, London 24, The Telegraph, The Huffington Post, and was recently named Writer of the Year on FTBpro - while also a nominee for Best Male Blog in the Football Blogging Awards.
