Transfer fees in football have reached eye-watering levels, with clubs happily throwing around millions for the right player. But back in 2006, one Romanian defender discovered that a transfer could also be settled in a rather more… edible fashion.Marius Cioara was playing for fourth-tier UT Arad when he moved to second-division Regal Hornia. The fee was not money, though. It was 15 kilograms of pork sausages.UT Arad, officially known as Asociația Fotbal Club UTA Arad, is one of Romania’s historic clubs. Founded in 1945, the Arad side, nicknamed Bătrâna Doamnă, or “The Old Lady,” has won six national titles and two Romanian Cups. These days, UTA play in Romania’s top flight, the SuperLiga, in their red and white colours at the Francisc von Neuman Stadium.But in 2006, the club’s transfer dealings were apparently a little less glamorous.And somehow, that was only the beginning of the story.
A transfer fee with a very short shelf life
Cioara’s unusual move quickly became a source of jokes at his new club, and according to comments attributed to the defender by local media, the teasing eventually became too much.“The sausage taunts all got too much,” Cioara said.He added: “They were joking, but I would have got more from the Germans and making sausage jokes was a huge insult.”The defender decided he had had enough and retired from football the very next day.Cioara subsequently left the game altogether and moved to Spain, where he found work on a farm. Whether the change of scenery finally gave him some peace from the sausage jokes is not known, but at least nobody could accuse him of taking the whole thing too seriously.Regal Hornia, meanwhile, apparently wanted its unusual transfer fee back. The club asked UT Arad to return the 15kg of sausages, giving the story perhaps its most bizarre post-transfer twist.
He wasn’t even the only player transferred for food
As strange as Cioara’s deal sounds, he was not the only footballer whose transfer was settled with something from the kitchen.During the 2000-01 season, Norwegian third-tier player Kenneth Kristiansen moved from Vindbjart to Flekkeroy in a deal where the fee was calculated according to his weight.The currency? Shrimp.Kristiansen weighed 75kg, so Flekkeroy effectively paid 75kg of shrimp for him.Flekkeroy chairman Rolf Guttormsen recalled being unsure whether the deal was actually serious.“I had no idea if it was a joke or deadly serious,” he said. “The Vindbjart chairman said that it was a bit of both, but they wanted the shrimp.”Fortunately, there was no shortage of seafood.“No problem, we have enough shrimp,” Guttormsen added.So while modern football has given us nine-figure transfers, release clauses and add-ons that require a calculator, there was a time when clubs could apparently settle their transfer business with a trip to the butcher or fish market.Cioara got 15kg of sausages. Kristiansen got his shrimp deal.And, presumably, somewhere in Italy, a sporting director is still wondering what the going rate for a decent midfielder is in frozen pizzas.
