Former England international Andy Carroll raised a few eyebrows when he completed a move to Reading earlier this week.
Carroll once cost Liverpool £35million, was a Premier League regular and has even appeared for his country at a European Championships.
So it may have come as a surprise to some when it was announced he was dropping down into the Championship.
The Royals have agreed a short-term deal with the 32-year-old as he bids to prove his fitness following his release from boyhood club Newcastle last summer.
With that in mind, we take a look at five other players who made surprise moves to EFL clubs in the latter stage of their careers.
Will Andy Carroll be a success at Reading? Let us know in the comments section
Sol Campbell
Campbell was a bona fide Premier League legend who represented Arsenal and Tottenham.
But in 2009, at the age of 34, he signed a long-term deal with Notts County. The League Two side had big plans, with ex-England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson hired as director of football.
Magpies' boss Ian McParland said at Campbell's unveiling: "He is a great player and a great organiser, and his experience will be invaluable to our push for promotion this season."
Unfortunately the fairy-tale ended abruptly. Campbell played one match, a 2-1 loss to Morecambe, and walked out on the club barely a month after joining.
He would go on to say: “I bought into a dream and I wanted to make that dream a reality. But it took me less than a month to realise that it was all heading to a different conclusion.”
That bizarre, one-off cameo against Morecambe remains the only league game Campbell played outside the top flight in his career.
Edgar Davids
Dutch legend Davids already had experience of playing in England after spells at Tottenham and Crystal Palace.
He surprisingly continued his career on these shores in October 2012 when he joined League Two side Barnet in a player-manager role.
Here was a Champions League winner and multiple title winner rocking up at a modest London club, one that was constantly aiming to keep their status as a Football League club intact.
Unfortunately, Davids was unable to prevent the club from dropping into the National League. He stuck around for the following season even handing himself the number one shirt for the 2013-14 campaign.
Which side has the best fans? Let us know in the survey below
But he struggled with discipline and in total Davids was sent off FIVE times for Barnet - including three in his final six games for the Bees.
He departed the club in January 2014, ending an eventful chapter in the history of both Davids and Barnet.
El Hadji Diouf
Diouf had played in the Premier League for Liverpool, won a title with Rangers and been a breakthrough star for Senegal in their famous World Cup journey in 2002.
So when he was unveiled as a Doncaster Rovers player in 2011, eyebrows were raised.
"I'm going to do everything I can to help the team be successful," he declared upon joining a Rovers side who were second-bottom in the Championship.
The deal was part of a policy that season at Rovers dubbed 'The Experiment'.
Owner John Ryan's used his friendship with agent Willie McKay to secure a clutch of high-profile signings on short-term deals.
As well as Diouf, Rovers also signed Frédéric Piquionne, Habib Beye and Pascal Chimbonda but the concept back-fired as Donny were relegated.
As for Diouf, he would score six in 22 before leaving Rovers for Leeds.
Urby Emanuelson
The full-back had started his career at Ajax before going on to represent Italian giants AC Milan and Roma.
So when he rocked up at Sheffield Wednesday in 2016, it came as a shock to many.
Emanuelson had won senior Dutch caps and was seen as a real coup for the Owls. But the move was a disaster.
He played just once all season. The only glimpse Wednesday fans got of him was on the final day of the season, in a 16-minute cameo against Fulham.
He's since returned to the Netherlands, playing for FC Utrecht.
Robbie Fowler
The man often referred to as 'God' by Liverpool fans was considered one of the Premier League's greatest ever strikers.
In 2007, he was 32 and had left Anfield for a second time.
Up until then he'd only ever played in the top flight, scoring 163 goals - a stat which sees him currently ranked eighth in the all-time list.
So it came as a shock when he dropped down to the Championship. He agreed a two-year deal with ambitious Cardiff City, who had also persuaded Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to sign.
Many expected the pair to flourish in the second tier. But while Hasselbaink was a regular for the Bluebirds, Fowler struggled with injuries.
He scored six goals in 16 games before departing the following summer. He went to Blackburn and then moved to Australia before finishing his career in Thailand.