Anderson Silva de Franca

There have been a few strange transfers in David Moyes's time at Everton — what manager doesn't occasionally get burned by a deal that doesn't come off? — but the protracted acquisition of Anderson Silva was perhaps one of the most bizarre.

The saga started in 2005, when Brazilian midfielder Anderson Silva supposedly become an Everton player when the club purchased his "commercial and federative rights", held at the time by Uruguayan side National Montevideo even though he actually played for Racing Santander in Spain.

Everton soon found to their dismay that he did not possess an EU passport which would have enabled him to circumvent the requirement to have played 75%+ of your country's international games in order to qualify for a work permit.

The player's registration was never filed with the FA but in 2005, he was loaned out to Málaga for six months so that he might rack up enough games in the Spanish league to earn a passport. Anderson started 15 games for a Málaga side that finished well bottom of La Liga. Although he didn't score, he did pick up 4 yellow and 2 red cards from an average playing time of 50 minutes a game.

His loan term was then extended into the 2006-07 season, during which time Málaga were a lower-level Spanish Second Division side — about the equivalent of the Conference in England — in danger of being relegated and Da Silva was not even getting a game for their first team.

Eventually, after 18 months in limbo, he officially joined Everton on 2nd January 2007.  He played one friendly (against Bournemouth) and a handful of Reserves games, before finally making an appearance in the first team at the end of a Premier League match against Charlton, a game won at the death by a moment of brilliance from James McFadden.

With his squad still low on numbers, Moyes gambled on a 12-month extension to Anderson's contract, which was confirmed in early July 2007 but, after a reasonably successful summer tour with the squad in the USA, the Brazilian was shipped off to Barnsley for three separate loan spells (the maximum allowed to one club in a season) before returning to Goodison in December.

With Everton's squad dangerously depleted by the African Cup of Nations absentees, injury and suspension, Anderson was an unused substitute for the Premier League goalless draw with Tottenham Hotspur on 30 January 2008 and was sold to Barnsley 24 hours later as the club's last piece of business on transfer deadline day.

By Michael Kenrick and Lyndon Lloyd
Last updated January 2008