Young footballer quits and becomes farm laborer out of embarrassment after being transferred to rival club for 15kg of pork sausage

In 2006, Marius Cioara moved from UT Arad to Regal Hornia for 15 kg of pork sausage, then quit football/ Image: The Sun Transfer fees in football have reached glamorous heights, with clubs happily shelling out millions for the right player. But in 2006, a Romanian defender discovered that the transfer could be solved in a rather… edible way.Marius Cioara played for the fourth UT Arad when he transferred to the second division Regal Hornia. However, the fee was not money. 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”, won six national titles and two Romanian Cups. These days, UTA plays in Romania’s top competition, the SuperLiga, in its red and white colors at the Francisco von Neuman Stadium.But in 2006, the club’s transfer dealings were apparently a little less glamorous.And somehow that was just the beginning of the story.

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.“All the sausage taunts are too much,” Cioara said.He added: “They were joking but I would get 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 a break from the sausage jokes is sadly undocumented, but at least no one could accuse him of taking the whole thing too seriously.Regal Hornia, meanwhile, apparently wanted their unusual transfer fee back. The club asked UT Arad to return 15 kg of sausages, giving the story perhaps the most bizarre post-transfer twist.

Nor was he the only player reassigned for food

As strange as Cioara’s deal sounds, he wasn’t the only footballer whose transfer was handled by 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.Currency? Shrimp.Kristiansen weighed 75kg, so Flekkeroy effectively paid 75kg of prawns for him.Flekkeroy chairman Rolf Guttormsen recalled that he was not sure if the deal was really serious.“I had no idea if it was a joke or dead serious,” he said. “The chairman of Vindbjart said it was a bit of both, but they wanted shrimp.Fortunately, there was no shortage of seafood.“No problem, we have enough shrimp,” added Guttormsen.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 received 15 kg of sausages. Kristiansen got a shrimp contract.And probably somewhere in Italy, the sporting director is still wondering what the price of a decent midfielder is in a frozen pizza.