Istvan Gaal was a young Hungarian soccer player who was unhappy in Hungary. In July 1970, he traveled to Yugoslavia, and from there he fled to Italy. He had dreams of playing professional soccer in North America, so he got in touch with someone from the Toronto team of the National Soccer League. When the Toronto management head that Gaal had scored 31 goals in 44 games while in Hungary, they were very interested in obtaining his services. Gaal was brought to Toronto.
But John Fischer of the Kitchener soccer team had also heard of Gaal by then. Kitchener was in 13th place in a league that had 14 teams and desperately needed a good player. They followed the young Hungarian. One day Gaal was with a representative of the Toronto team. The representative left him standing on a street corner for a few minutes while he went on an errand. Friends of the Kitchener team drove by, persuaded Gaal to get into their car and then sped away.
Gaal was soon in a Kitchener uniform, but unfortunately he was a big disappointment as a player. He played in one exhibition game and was a substitute in a scheduled game but he did nothing spectacular.
Toronto had not signed a contract with Gaal, so they could not claim that he was their property. But when they heard that Kitchener was about to drop him, they asked Kitchener to release Gaal to them.
The Kitchener team refused to give a player away free.
“What do you want for him?” Toronto asked.
Fischer thought for a moment, then replied, “I’ll give him to you for a soccer ball.”
Toronto agreed and made the trade.
Gaal had been brought 3,000 miles by one team, kidnapped by another, then traded back to the first team for a soccer ball.
John Fischer of Kitchener said he was sorry if the trade humiliated Gaal. But he pointed out that a good soccer ball is worth $27.50. And he said that Gaal was not the first athlete to be traded for equipment. Some years earlier a hockey player had been traded for a pair of nets.
From Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
I thought this was going to be the guy that wasn’t actually a soccer player but just looking to get out of Eastern Europe. I can’t remember if it was NASL or MISL.
The only hit I had on my search was this but not who I was looking for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Kaiser_(footballer)
My favorite was the baseball player who got traded to the other team during a doubleheader, and played one game for each team.
That one is coming eventually.
Wasn’t there a minor league guy traded for a bunch of bats?
I don’t know, but there was one guy who got traded for 12 dozen baseballs.
https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/baseball/article/Bewildering-barters-nothing-new-for-baseball-1204464.php