List of most expensive association football transfers


The following is a list of most expensive men's association football transfers, which details the highest transfer fees ever paid for players, as well as transfers which set new world transfer records. The first recorded record transfer was of Willie Groves from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa for £100 in 1893. This occurred just eight years after the introduction of professionalism by the Football Association in 1885. The current transfer record was set by the transfer of Neymar from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for €222 million in August of 2017.

Highest transfer payments

Most of the transfers on this list are to clubs under UEFA's jurisdiction, and most of the purchasing clubs are from England, France, Italy and Spain.
Three players appear on the list twice: Romelu Lukaku, Ángel Di María and Cristiano Ronaldo. All of the players on the list are of European, South American, North America and African origin. Following the transfer of American Christian Pulisic of the CONCACAF confederation in 2019, there are currently no players on the list from the remaining regions; Asia and Oceania.
As of 7 August 2019
RankPlayerFromToPositionFee
Fee
YearYear of birthReference
1 Neymar BarcelonaForward€222£19820171992
2 Kylian Mbappé Monaco Paris Saint-GermainForward€135£11620181998
3 João Félix Benfica Atlético MadridForward€126£114.120191999
4 Antoine Griezmann Atlético Madrid BarcelonaForward€120£10720191991
4 Philippe Coutinho Liverpool BarcelonaMidfielder€120£10520181992
6 BarcelonaForward€105£9720171997
6 JuventusMidfielder€105£8920161993
8 Eden Hazard Chelsea Real MadridForward€100£8920191991
8 Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid JuventusForward€100£8820181985
8 Tottenham Hotspur Real MadridForward€100£8620131989
11 Real MadridForward€94£8020091985
12 Napoli JuventusStriker€90£75.320161987
13 Leicester City Manchester UnitedDefender€87£8020191993
14 Everton Manchester UnitedStriker€85£7520171993
15 Southampton LiverpoolDefender€84.5£7520181991
16 Liverpool BarcelonaStriker€82.3£6520141987
17 Romelu Lukaku Manchester United InternazionaleStriker€80£7420191993
17 Nicolas Pépé Lille ArsenalWinger€80£7220191995
17 Kepa Arrizabalaga Athletic Bilbao ChelseaGoalkeeper€80£71.620181994
17 Lucas Hernandez Atlético Madrid Bayern MunichDefender€80£7020191996
21 Juventus Real MadridMidfielder€77.5£46.620011972
22 Monaco Real MadridMidfielder€76£6320141991
23 Real Madrid Manchester UnitedMidfielder€75.6£59.720141988
24 Ajax JuventusDefender€75£67.520191999
24 Ajax BarcelonaMidfielder€75£6520191997
24 VfL Wolfsburg Manchester CityMidfielder€75£5520151991
27 Rodri Atlético Madrid Manchester CityMidfielder€70£6320191996
27 Monaco Atlético MadridMidfielder€70£6320181995
29 Internazionale BarcelonaStriker€69.5£5620091981
30 Leicester City Manchester CityForward€67.8£6020181991
31 Kaká Milan Real MadridMidfielder€67£5620091982
32 Real Madrid ChelseaStriker€65.5£5820171992
33 Athletic Bilbao Manchester CityDefender€65.2£5720181994
34 João Cancelo Juventus Manchester CityDefender€65£24.720191994
35 Napoli Paris Saint-GermainStriker€64.5£5520131987
36 Borussia Dortmund ChelseaForward€64£5820191998
36 Manchester United Paris Saint-GermainMidfielder€64£4520151988
38 Borussia Dortmund ArsenalStriker€63.7£56.120181989
39 Alisson Roma LiverpoolGoalkeeper€62.5£5620181992
39 Liverpool Manchester CityForward€62.5£4420151994
41 Barcelona Real MadridMidfielder€62£3720001972
42 Oscar Chelsea Shanghai SIPGMidfielder€61£5220171991
43 Eintracht Frankfurt Real MadridForward€60£5420191997
43 Lyon Tottenham HotspurMidfielder€60£53.820191996
43 RB Leipzig LiverpoolMidfielder€60£52.7520181995
43 Atlético Madrid MonacoStriker€60£5120131986
47 Liverpool ChelseaStriker€59£5020111984
47 Fred Shakhtar Donetsk Manchester UnitedMidfielder€59£4720181993
49 Parma LazioStriker€58.5£3520001975
50 Monaco Manchester CityDefender€58.1£5220171993

Notes

World football transfer record

The first player to ever be transferred for a fee of over £100 was Scottish striker Willie Groves when he together with Jack Reynolds made the switch from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa in 1893, eight years after the legalisation of professionalism in the sport. It took just another twelve years for the figure to become £1000, when Sunderland striker Alf Common moved to Middlesbrough.
It was not until 1928 that the first five-figure transfer took place. David Jack of Bolton Wanderers was the subject of interest from Arsenal, and in order to negotiate the fee down, Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman got the Bolton representatives drunk. Subsequently, David Jack was transferred for a world record fee when Arsenal paid £10,890 to Bolton for his services, after Bolton had asked for £13,000, which was double the previous record made when Sunderland signed Burnley's Bob Kelly a fee of for £6,500.
The first player from outside Great Britain to break the record was Bernabé Ferreyra, a player known as La Fiera for his powerful shot. His 1932 transfer from Tigre to River Plate cost £23k, and the record would last for 17 years until it was broken by Manchester United's sale of Johnny Morris to Derby County for £24k in March 1949. The record was broken seven further times between 1949 and 1961, when Luis Suárez Miramontes was sold by FC Barcelona to Inter Milan for £152k, becoming the first ever player sold for more than £100k.
In 1968, Pietro Anastasi became the first £500k player when Juventus purchased him from Varese, which was followed seven years later with Giuseppe Savoldi becoming the first million pound player when he transferred from Bologna to Napoli.
After Alf Common and David Jack, the third player to twice be transferred for world record fees is Diego Maradona. His transfers from Boca Juniors to Barcelona for £3m, and then to Napoli for £5m, both broke the record in 1982 and 1984 respectively. The most recent is Ronaldo with his record-breaking move from PSV Eindhoven to Barcelona in 1996 for £13.2m, although Alan Shearer's transfer to Newcastle broke the record the same summer. A year later Inter Milan paid £19.5m for Ronaldo and again he became the player with the highest transfer fee.
In the space of 61 days in 1992, three transfers broke the record, all by Italian clubs: Jean-Pierre Papin transferred from Marseille to A.C. Milan, becoming the first ever £10m player. Almost immediately, rivals Juventus topped that with the signing of Gianluca Vialli for a fee of £12m from Sampdoria. Milan then completed the signing of Gianluigi Lentini for a fee of £13m which stood as the record for three years.
The 1996 transfer of Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United, for a fee of £15m, kickstarted a year-by-year succession of record breaking transfers: Ronaldo moved the following year to Inter Milan from FC Barcelona for a fee of £17m, which was followed in 1998 by the shock transfer of his fellow countryman Denílson from São Paulo to Real Betis for a fee of approximately £21m.
In 1999 and 2000, Italian clubs returned to their record-breaking ways, with Christian Vieri transferring from Lazio to Inter Milan for £28m, while Hernán Crespo's transfer from Parma to Lazio ensured he became the first player to cost more than £30m. The transfer prompted the BBC to ask "has the world gone mad"? It took two weeks for the record to be broken when Luís Figo made a controversial £37m move from Barcelona to rivals Real Madrid. A year later, Real increased the record again with a signing of Zinedine Zidane for £48 million.
Zidane's record stood for 8 years, the longest since the 1940s. Real Madrid continued with the Galácticos policy by buying Kaká from Milan for €67 million, which was the world record in pound sterling. However, both world record in euro and in pound sterling were broke by Real themselves when signing Cristiano Ronaldo for £80m from Manchester United in the same transfer window, 4 years later Real Madrid broke the record again after completed the signing of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013. Although Real initially insisted that the transfer cost €91.59 million, slightly less than the Ronaldo fee, the deal was widely reported to be around €100 million. Documents leaked in 2016 by Football Leaks revealed that installments brought the final Bale fee up to a total of €100,759,418. In 2016, Manchester United eventually took the record away from Real Madrid, signing French midfielder Paul Pogba for €105 million, four years after having released him to Juventus for training compensation.
A year after the Pogba transfer, however, there was a major jump in the record fee. Paris St. Germain matched the €222 million buyout fee of Barcelona's Neymar, converted to a reported £198 million or £200 million by different sources. This was the first time that the record fee was paid by a French club.

Historical progression

Comparison of fees in different nations is complicated by varying exchange rates. This table uses British Pound Sterling prior to 1999 and Euro from 1999 to present.
YearPlayerSelling clubBuying clubFee Fee Fee Percentage change from last record
1893 Willie Groves West Bromwich Albion Aston Villa–N/A
1903 Ben Green Barnsley Small Heath–400
1904 Alf Common Sheffield United Sunderland–4
1904 Andy McCombie Sunderland Newcastle United–26
1905 Alf Common Sunderland Middlesbrough–42
1913 Daniel Shea West Ham United Blackburn Rovers–100
1913 Tommy Barber Bolton Wanderers Aston Villa–0
1914 Percy Dawson Heart of Midlothian Blackburn Rovers–25
1920 David Jack Plymouth Argyle Bolton Wanderers–40
1921 Tom Hamilton Kilmarnock Preston North End–31
1922 Syd Puddefoot West Ham United Falkirk–9
1922 Warney Cresswell South Shields Sunderland–10
1925 Bob Kelly Burnley Sunderland–18
1928 David Jack Bolton Wanderers Arsenal–68
1932 Bernabé Ferreyra Tigre River Plate–111
1949 Johnny Morris Manchester United Derby County–4
1949 Eddie Quigley Sheffield Wednesday Preston North End–10
1950 Trevor Ford Aston Villa Sunderland–13
1951 Jackie Sewell Notts County Sheffield Wednesday–15
1952 Hans Jeppson Atalanta Napoli–51
1954 Juan Schiaffino Peñarol Milan–38
1957 Enrique Omar Sivori River Plate Juventus–29
1961 Luis Suárez Barcelona Internazionale–63
1963 Angelo Sormani Mantova Roma–64
1967 Harald Nielsen Bologna Internazionale–20
1968 Pietro Anastasi Varese Juventus–67
1973 Johan Cruyff Ajax Barcelona–84
1975 Giuseppe Savoldi Bologna Napoli–30
1976 Paolo Rossi Vicenza Juventus–46
1982 Diego Maradona Boca Juniors Barcelona–71
1984 Diego Maradona Barcelona Napoli–67
1987 Ruud Gullit PSV Eindhoven Milan–20
1990 Roberto Baggio Fiorentina Juventus–33
1992 Jean-Pierre Papin Marseille Milan–25
1992 Gianluca Vialli Sampdoria Juventus–20
1992 Gianluigi Lentini Torino Milan–8
1996 Ronaldo PSV Eindhoven Barcelona–2
1996 Alan Shearer Blackburn Rovers Newcastle United–14
1997 Ronaldo Barcelona Internazionale–30
1998 Denílson São Paulo Real Betis–10
1999 Christian Vieri Lazio Internazionale49,000,00049
2000 Hernán Crespo Parma Lazio55,000,00011
2000 Luís Figo Barcelona Real Madrid62,000,0004
2001 Zinedine Zidane Juventus Real Madrid77,500,00026
2009 Kaká Milan Real Madrid67,000,00020
2009 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United Real Madrid94,000,00043
2013 Gareth Bale Tottenham Hotspur Real Madrid100,000,0008
2016 Paul Pogba Juventus Manchester United105,000,00089,000,0003
2017 Neymar Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain222,000,000198,000,000125

Number of records by country

Gallery