We’ve all heard the story about a football team agreeing to pay for a set of tracksuits or a bag of balls in exchange for a player, but this one might be even more (or less) impressive depending on how much you like hazelnuts.
There are some interesting historical examples of items being swapped for players instead of cash. In 1928 Man United agreed to sign Hugh McLeanahan from Stockport County in exchange for a freezer full of ice cream.
Ian Wright was famously playing in non league football before making the step up to play with Crystal Palace. What did his former club receive in exchange for him? A set of weights. Imagine selling a future England international striker, at the age of 22, for a set of weights.
Another bizarre example belongs to Franco Di Santo, formerly of Wigan and Chelsea. His local side agreed to sell him to Audax Italiano in Chile for two goal nets and 40 litres of paint.
All of this brings us on to our latest example. A Turkish club has agreed to sign two players in exchange for a sack of hazelnuts:
Korganspor playing in the amateur league in Ordu, has transferred two football players in exchange for a sack of hazelnuts. pic.twitter.com/8DCUil95UG
— dokuz8NEWS (@dokuz8_EN) September 14, 2019
I’m struggling to decide if it would be less insulting to be sold for nothing, or if I would be proud to be valued at half a sack of nuts.
Unfortunately coverage of the Turkish amateur leagues is fairly minimal, so it’s not clear exactly how many hazelnuts make up “a sack” You can buy a kilo of the nuts for about £10 online, so it won’t go down as one of the big money moves of the year.