THERE have been a fair few box office, not to mention downright bizarre, signings in Scottish football over the years.
Nobody ever foresaw Zoltan Varga moving to Aberdeen, Claudio Caniggia and Fabrizio Ravanelli joining Dundee, Chris Waddle rocking up at Falkirk or Vincent Wanyama arriving in Dunfermline.
But has anything ever come close to Victor Munoz suddenly materialising at St Mirren back in 1990?
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Munoz – or Victor as he was better known – had a formidable reputation in the European game at that time.
The midfielder had helped Barcelona to win La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de Espana, the Copa de la Liga and the European Cup Winners’ Cup during a successful seven year spell at the Nou Camp during the 1980s.
He became one of the first Spaniards to ply his trade in Italy when he joined Sampdoria in 1988 and lifted both the Coppa Italia and the European Cup Winners’ Cup once again in his time at the Marassi.
At international level, he was a mainstay for his country for years. He featured at the European Championship finals in France in 1984 and West Germany in 1988 as well as at the World Cup finals in Mexico in 1986.
That fact that his old Barca team mate Steve Archibald was returning home to represent the Paisley outfit following a spell with Espanyol was a definite factor.
But as he gave his thoughts on how Athletic Club Bilbao would fare against Rangers in the Europa League quarter-final earlier this week, Victor explained the real reason why he had swapped Sampdoria for St Mirren.
The 60-times capped 33-year-old was eyeing a move into coaching at that point in time – he would go on to manage in Spain, Greece, Russia and Switzerland for many years – and he was interested in sampling another style of football before he hung up his boots.
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“It was a very good experience for me,” he said. “In the end, I only stayed for about four months. I went back home and joined Zaragoza, where I am from and where I started out in football at, and finished off my career off there. But it was a shame because I liked my time at St Mirren very much.
“I was a big fan of English football at that time and Scottish football was not very different to it at that time. So I wanted to know about British football. For that reason, it was a very good experience, a unique experience. I was able to train and play in Britain and learn a little about a different kind of football before I became a manager.”
Victor - who was also, legend has it, handsomely remunerated while he was resident in Renfrewshire - only played in around 20 games in total for Tony Fitzpatrick’s men during the 1990/91 campaign.
But he scored along with Gudmundur Torfason, Paul Kinnaird and Kenny McDowall in a 5-1 win over Stranraer in a Scottish Cup third round tie at Stair Park in January.
He also found the target along with Tom Black in a 2-2 draw with Dunfermline Athletic at Love Street the following month.
Victor was helpless to prevent St Mirren finishing bottom of the Premier Division that season – but the Buddies survived in the top flight all the same because the league was expanded from 10 to 12 teams the following campaign.
He can only see his countrymen prevailing and progressing to a semi-final double header against either Lyon or Manchester United.
“Athletic are a very, very good team this season,” he said. “They are in fourth place in La Liga, but they could easily be fighting for the Spanish title. They have beaten Real Madrid and played very well. They have probably had a few too many draws. That has cost them.
“But the manager and the players are very good so I think this could be a very difficult match for Rangers. In the second leg at the San Mames Stadium especially it will be tough for them. The atmosphere there on big European nights is tremendous.
“The Europa League is also a very special tournament for Athletic this season because the final is being played in Bilbao. I know their players will want to get there and lift their first European trophy in front of their own fans.”
