10 Weirdest Football Transfers That Happened This Summer

2. Malcolm To Zenit St Petersburg (£36.5m)

Barcelona have been busy little bees haven’t they? They’ve managed to piss off two Europeon super clubs in Atletico Madrid and PSG with their pursuits of Griezmann and Neymar and managed to swap keepers with Valencia, not to mention bringing in the young superstar that is Frenkie De Jong. With all that madness surrounding the imminent arrivals to Messi’s Nou Camp, many have batted an eye lid at the departures. Malcolm could’ve been the foil to the undeniable greatness of Lionel and was touted as the Brock Lesnar of Ligue 1 ('The Next Big Thing' to the uninitiated). Alack! It wasn’t meant to be and his underwhelming spell at Barcelona has come to a spluttering end but it’s his next move which makes this transfer WEIRD.

Zenit st Petersburg are supported by what can only be described as racist fans. Malcolm’s signing was met with a abusive, racist banners and a fan statement of ‘We are not racist and for us the absence of black players is just an important tradition, emphasising the identity of the club and nothing more’.

A player should be allowed to play anywhere on the planet. That is a given. No one should have to make a career choice with that in mind so Malcolm is completely not at fault for this deal and the people at Zenit who have forged potentially brilliant signing cannot be blamed for the reaction either. But to have a player endure this kind of climate whilst trying to simply do their job, doesn’t make sense and shouldn't happen.