Bradford City have smashed headlines by landing a top-class striker in a sensational £35,000 deal

By the summer of 2007, Bradford City’s Premier League days already felt like a distant memory. Less than ten years earlier they had spent two seasons in the top flight, but the adventure had come at a heavy price. Administration, mounting debts, and a relegation in 2005 left the club reeling.

The 2006–07 campaign brought no respite. Finishing 22nd in League One condemned City to another relegation, this time to League Two. Stuart McCall was appointed as manager to replace Colin Todd, who’d been dismissed in February, with caretaker David Wetherall stepping aside after the season’s end.

That summer, Chilean striker Willy Topp arrived in Europe searching for a club. Initially contracted to Universidad Católica, he had a deal lined up with Belgian side RRFC Montegnée. But after catching McCall’s eye during a Bradford trial, he was offered the chance to prove himself in England instead.

There was just one major problem: Bradford’s finances. The club hadn’t paid a transfer fee in six years, since the £100,000 outlay for Andy Tod in 2001. With the Football League closely monitoring every transaction, negotiations over Topp’s move dragged on. Bradford believed they’d signed him on a free, while his parent club valued him at £55,000. Eventually, a compromise fee of £35,000 was struck. Even then, paperwork delays and revoked international clearance left the deal in limbo for more than two months.

Topp finally made his debut on 29 December 2007 in a 3–1 defeat at Hereford United, with City languishing in 16th place in League Two. He featured sporadically for the rest of the campaign, registering one assist in a 4–2 win over Shrewsbury Town. The following season, injuries restricted him further. By October 2008 he had only two substitute appearances to his name, totaling just 24 minutes, before being released a month later — six months early. His Valley Parade record ended at 13 games, with no goals and just that single assist.

For a club in such financial straits, the £35,000 gamble on Topp was a costly mistake. Bradford have never returned to the Championship since, though they have managed to climb back to League One for the 2025–26 season.