😰 Instagram trouble: players who used socials to get transferred 📲 | OneFootball

😰 Instagram trouble: players who used socials to get transferred 📲 | OneFootball

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·2 August 2025

😰 Instagram trouble: players who used socials to get transferred 📲

Article image:😰 Instagram trouble: players who used socials to get transferred 📲

Ademola Lookman had a very clear reaction the moment Atalanta rejected the offer of 42 million euros plus 3 in bonuses made by Inter.

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The forward removed every single photo linking him to the Orobici from his Instagram profile, deleting the Goddess from his bio and also removing the profile picture.


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This is not the first and will not be the last time a player adopts such an attitude. Just today, Dutch winger Xavi Simons, targeted by Chelsea, also decided to remove any reference to Leipzig from his Instagram bio. Below we recall the various precedents.


Viktor Gyokeres with Sporting

The most recent case is that of Viktor Gyokeres who, in an attempt to force the subsequent transfer to Arsenal, did not show up for the training sessions scheduled by Sporting Lisbon and to emphasize his choice, removed any reference to the Portuguese club from his Instagram bio.

This greatly strained the relationship, prompting President Frederico Varandas to threaten to keep him in Portugal for years if the right offer did not come. In the end, the 63.5 million euros plus 10 bonuses put on the table by the Gunners were enough to unlock the situation and bring the striker back to the Premier League.


Memphis Depay with Manchester United

Going back in time, we find perhaps one of the first cases. It was 2016 and Memphis Depay, after an extremely disappointing season at Manchester United, removed every single Instagram image depicting him in the club's colors. So far, it seems like a fairly standard story, but there's a twist.

Besides acting this way towards the Red Devils, the Dutchman, who had been repeatedly criticized by then-manager Louis van Gaal and plausibly did not have a good relationship with the rest of the locker room, also involved his teammates. He unfollowed all the players who were part of the squad. A dramatic gesture that led him to play only 4 games in the second half of the season. He was then sold to Lyon at the beginning of 2017.


Matheus Cunha with Wolverhampton

Returning to present times, here's another of the Premier League's most expensive signings involved. Matheus Cunha, 4 months ago, used social media to send a warning to Wolverhampton ahead of the summer.

Article image:😰 Instagram trouble: players who used socials to get transferred 📲

"It's time to be happy, I will follow my dreams and not yours." Time has "proven" the Brazilian forward right, as he achieved his goal of playing with Manchester United.


United involved again, this time for Sancho

Article image:😰 Instagram trouble: players who used socials to get transferred 📲

Following one of the many disputes with Erik ten Hag that effectively marked the end of his relationship with Manchester United, Jadon Sancho also had an extreme social reaction. In this case, the English forward chose to delete every content from his Instagram profile, a tool to express discontent.


Darwin Nunez with Liverpool

There's another case to tell, where the gesture was the same but the motivation is a bit broader and deeper than a simple transfer request. We're talking about Darwin Nunez. That his relationship with Liverpool was not idyllic is true now and was true more than a year ago when the episode occurred. But the reason is not so immediate.

Following the match against Tottenham, after being heavily criticized by the environment for a series of missed goals, the Uruguayan reacted by removing any content related to the Reds universe from his recent feed. It was a case that then subsided over the summer.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.


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