Sergio "Sergi" Morales

One of the strangest Premier League stories of the 1990s involved West Ham and Chile defender Javier Margas. 😭 Harry Redknapp signed Margas after watching him at the 1998 World Cup, but the move never really settled. His wife struggled badly with life in England and eventually returned to Chile, while Margas remained in a hotel. Then one day, he simply failed to turn up for training. Redknapp went to check on him and found the room half-empty with the first-floor window wide open. “He’d left half his gear there, the window was open… he obviously took what he needed, jumped out the window and legged it.” Margas had gone back to Chile. West Ham never saw him again. He still left England with a 1999 Intertoto Cup winners’ medal, but his West Ham career ended with one of football’s great disappearing acts.