QPR struck January gold with Fulham transfer - it paid out millions | OneFootball

Bobby Zamora had already become a legend at one club by the time he joined QPR in 2012, and one goal he scored for them would earn them millions.

By the time that Bobby Zamora arrived at Queens Park Rangers in 2012 he was already a legend at one other club, and while his time at Loftus Road didn't bring many, it did provide Rangers with one very valuable goal.

The five years between 2010 and 2015 were certainly eventful for Queens Park Rangers. They were promoted twice and relegated twice during this period of their history, winning a Championship title and a play-off final, while dropping back in bottom place in the Premier League table twice as well.

The club won the Championship title in 2011, lifting the title with 95 points. By the end of the following January and the closure of that winter's transfer window, though, they were struggling again, in 15th place in the Premier League and just two points above the relegation places.

And this prompted them to pay Fulham £4 million for Bobby Zamora, a striker who'd already written himself into the club folklore at Brighton & Hove Albion before earning himself bags of Premier League experience with Spurs, West Ham United at Fulham.

Zamora was a hit at Brighton, West Ham and Fulham before QPR came calling

Bobby Zamora started his career at Bristol Rovers, but it was at Brighton & Hove Albion that he first made his name, running up 51 goals in 108 appearances for the club before the Premier League came calling with a £1.5 million move to Spurs in July 2003.

But his time at White Hart Lane didn't work out. Unable to break into the first team, it was only six months before he went to West Ham United in a swap deal which saw Jermain Defoe go in the opposite direction. West Ham suited him better, and over the next five years he'd go on to score 40 times in 149 appearances for them before moving on to Fulham with John Pantsil for a combined fee of £6.3 million in July 2008.

The success continued at Craven Cottage. Over the next three and a half years, he'd make 134 appearances and score another 37 goals for Fulham, featuring in their team which went all the way to the Europa League final in 2010, when they beat Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, Wolfsburg and Hamburger SV before losing the final 2-1 to Atletico Madrid.

Zamora wasn't a hit at Loftus Road, but he did deliver QPR one very important goal indeed

With Zamora in their squad, Queens Park Rangers escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth at the end of the 2011-12 season. On the final day, they needed a win away to Manchester City, with City needing a win to win the Premier League, to guarantee their survival, but lost the game 3-2 in the dying seconds, only for results elsewhere to ensure that they stayed up.

The next season, though, the wheels fell off the wagon, and QPR were relegated back to the Championship in bottom place in the table. Having picked up just 25 points, they ended the season having picked up just four league wins all season, and 14 points from safety.

Rangers kicked off their 2013-14 season in style, winning eight and drawing two of their first ten games of the season to go top of the Championship table by September.

It wasn't, however, a momentum that they could continue, though they did stay in the top four for the whole of the season, finishing in 4th place in the table and booking themselves a place in the play-offs, where they beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 in the semi-finals after extra-time to book themselves a place at Wembley to play Derby County in the final.

Zamora was a relatively peripheral figure in all this. He only made 17 appearances in the League for them that season, scoring twice. Rangers' goal machine that season was Charlie Austin, who scored 20 goals for them in all competitions, including both against Wigan in that play-off semi-final.

The final was played in front of a crowd of just over 87,000, and it was a predictably tight, tense game. Zamora was introduced from the bench for Kevin Doyle after 57 minutes had been played. But it was in the final minute of the 90 that his moment would come, when Junior Hoilett pulled the ball back from the touchline, Richard Keogh miscontrolled, and Zamora curled it into the corner from twelve yards for the only goal of the game.

Queens Park Rangers were back in the Premier League and Bobby Zamora's goal was estimated at the time to be worth at least £80 million to the club. He made 31 appearances for them in the top flight the following season, scoring seven goals, but this wasn't enough to prevent them from being relegated back again. At the end of that season he left the club to return to Brighton, where he played until retiring from playing in 2016.

In some respects, Bobby Zamora was not a success at Queens Park Rangers. He only managed 14 goals for them in 92 appearances, and they were relegated from the Premier League twice while he was at Loftus Road.

But in a very important way, his signature was a success. That late goal against Derby was very valuable to the club, even if they couldn't stay up the following season. And more than a decade on, he remains the last player to fire the club into the Premier League. Rangers will be hoping for someone else to equal that feat, later this season.