Robert Lewandowski is hoping to star at this year's Qatar World Cup with his native Poland.
The Poles face off against either the Czech Republic or Sweden on Tuesday, March 29 after being handed a bye in the original semi-final against Russia, who were booted out by FIFA following the country's invasion of Ukraine.
For Lewandowski, it means he is just one game away from another major tournament with his country in a season where has again been on fire for Bayern Munich. This term has seen the 33-year-old again break the 30 league goals barrier. Yet whilst he might currently be a superstar for Bayern, Lewandowski's career path could have been very different.
Here, Mirror Football takes a look at a clutch of eye-raising transfers that almost happened.
Robert Lewandowski to Blackburn Rovers
As mentioned, the Pole is one of world football's star strikers. He regularly tops the charts in the Bundesliga and last season he scored a scarcely believable 41 times in just 29 outings. But back in 2010 he almost became a Blackburn Rovers player. He was impressing for Lech Poznan in his native Poland when Rovers were looking to bolster their squad, which was sitting in mid-table in the Premier League.
After scouting Lewandowski, they thrashed out a deal - only for the volcanic ash episode of that year to pull to plug on the transfer. Blackburn's head of recruitment, Martyn Glover told Sky Sports: "Discussions with the club president went as planned, to we sat down with Robert after the game and had an outline proposal in place for him to join Rovers.
Which player do you remember your club missing out on? Let us know in the comments
"After that, whatever could have gone wrong, went wrong. He was due to fly to the UK but all flights were cancelled due to that volcanic ash cloud. The chairman (John Williams) was worried that Poland wasn't famous for producing prolific goal scorers and there were questions raised around the fee, which was around £3m, rising to £4m."
That proved to be the end of the chase and Lewandowski would ultimately sign for Borussia Dortmund, establishing himself as a prolific scorer before going to even higher levels after joining Bayern in 2014.
Eric Cantona to Sheffield Wednesday
Cantona is Premier League royalty, having won four titles with Manchester United in the 1990s. Prior to his time in Manchester he was at Leeds United, where he introduced himself to English football. But it could have been a different part of Yorkshire, had things turned out differently.
Sheffield Wednesday invited Cantona to train with them in 1992, having just been promoted back to the top flight. Despite starring for the Owls, bizarrely in an indoor game, Cantona was not offered a deal by Owls' boss Trevor Francis.
Speaking to FourFourTwo in 2020, Cantona said: "He [Francis] didn’t invite me for a trial. I was there for a week and I thought I was there to sign. My lawyer was there and he spoke to try and find a way with the contract. I trained and played in a friendly game. We won 4-3. I scored three goals. After one week, he [Francis] asked me to spend one more week on trial.
"Maybe they were suspicious, but I was a France international and Sheffield Wednesday wanted more time to decide about me. That was not a very good way to go about things." Cantona would eventually help Leeds to First Division title success before lighting up Old Trafford.
Pep Guardiola to Wigan Athletic
Manchester City boss Guardiola is regarded as one of the world's best managers and his playing career wasn't too shabby either. He won six La Liga titles with Barcelona in a long and successful time with the Spanish giants. But in 2018 he revealed how he came close to joining Wigan Athletic at the back end of his playing days.
Wigan were Premier League debutants in 2005 but opted not to sign up free agent Guardiola. Speaking ahead of an FA Cup game between City and Wigan, the Spaniard said: “I was not good enough, that is the truth. I was old, really old! I knocked on the door, I tried to come here to play in English football, but I was not able. The same happened here at Manchester City, when I came here with Stuart Pearce. They were so clever! I was not good enough.”
Didier Drogba to Sheffield United
Drogba is a Premier League legend who was voted Chelsea's greatest ever player in a poll. But his introduction to English football could have seen him turning out in the colours of Sheffield United, rather than his beloved Blues.
Neil Warnock recently spoke about his regret at not sanctioning a deal for Drogba, who was making waves in France, back in the early 2000s. Appearing on national radio station talkSPORT, veteran boss Warnock was asked whether he had been haunted by missing out on a player during his long career in the dugout. “I think every manager has, really," he said. “Just thinking about it now, usually it’s a striker.
"The main one early in my career, I had a French lad, Laurent D'Jaffo, he said to me 'gaffer I've seen a player for you in second division in France, very good, £100,000'. I said '£100,000? That is a lot for a second division French player. What's his name?' He said 'Drogba'. I said we cant pay £100,000 for a second division French player. And you all know what happened to him in the end, Drogba! That was my biggest (missed transfer opportunity). I don't think I could have had a bigger loss than that one."
Zlatan Ibrahimovic to QPR
The Swedish superstar has played for some of the world's biggest clubs and has won titles in Holland, Spain, Italy and France. Even aged 40, he is still going strong for his country and AC Milan. But his career trajectory could have been altogether different had his trial in England gone down better.
In 1998 a 16-year-old Ibrahimovic was invited over for a trial by QPR, along with fellow Malmo player Tony Flygare. The second tier side wanted to take a look at the pair. But Ibrahimovic's fiery attitude, even as a teen, ultimately put paid to any potential transfer.
Flygare, speaking to the Mail in 2014, said: "Zlatan was holding on to the ball for too long and the trainer tackled him when he wasn’t expecting it. For that, Zlatan tackled him back and then told the trainer to '**** off'. He went mad at Zlatan. Being in England was so much different. He just told Zlatan: 'for that, you’re going to breathe through your a***'. I’ll never forget it. We didn’t hear from QPR again."
Ibrahimovic did return to these shores, joining Manchester United in 2016 and winning the Europa League and League Cup in his two years at Old Trafford.
