Real Madrid's most expensive signings ever

Few clubs are more closely associated with lavish spending than Real Madrid.

The team that began the Galacticos policy back in the 1950s has broken the world transfer record five times - a tally no other club throughout history can better.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has previously sneered: "We create Ballons d'Or. Others buy them." Where these vast sums are sourced from is not always clear, but Madrid routinely find a way to splash the cash.

Here are the most expensive arrivals from the long list of blue-chip signings in Real Madrid's history.

Real Madrid's most expensive signings ever

10. Luis Figo - €60m

Not the most expensive but comfortably the most controversial transfer in the history of Real Madrid - if not football.

Luis Figo had been the darling of Barcelona for five years but allowed himself to get entangled in Real Madrid's presidential elections in 2000 after stalled contract negotiations with Barça. Held up as the prize if Florentino Perez was elected, Figo promised he wasn't going anywhere but eventually and reluctantly crossed the divide.

9. Luka Jovic - €63m

In three years, Luka Jovic mustered three goals for Real Madrid - €21m a pop - before Los Blancos cut their losses and let the striker leave for free in 2022.

"Fitting in at the best club in the world is complicated," Jovic reflected with lashings of understatement. "Between injuries and COVID-19, I had unfair pressure on me."

8. Kaka - €67m

After watching Barcelona become the first Spanish team to secure the European treble in 2009, Real Madrid delivered an emphatic economic response.

Kaka was only the second-most expensive arrival in a summer which saw Madrid's splurge exceed €250m. The rest of La Liga - including Barcelona - combined to spend only €237m on transfers in the same window.

7. James Rodriguez - €75m

"The name is Bond, James Rodriguez." Or so said the headline of the Times of India in 2014. The Colombian's mesmeric performances during the World Cup in Brazil had not only dumbfounded sub-editors but convinced Florentino Perez to part ways with €75m.

Despite averaging a goal or assist every 94 La Liga minutes, Rodriguez failed to consistently reproduce his spellbinding World Cup displays for Madrid.

6. Zinedine Zidane - €77.5m

"Would you like to come and play in Madrid?" Perez scrawled on a napkin during a Champions League award ceremony in Monte Carlo. Real's president slid it across the table to Zinedine Zidane, sparking another record-breaking transfer in 2001.

While there are conflicting figures over the final fee, whatever Madrid paid was too much - according to Zidane himself. "A while back I said the amount of money was enormous and that I was not worth that much," he reiterated at his unveiling.

5. Aurelien Tchouameni - €80m

Watching Real Madrid defeat Liverpool in the 2022 Champions League final, Aurelien Tchouameni was convinced to join Los Blancos - even though Jurgen Klopp's side were also interested.

"I was messaging people saying: 'Please do all you can to take me to Madrid,'" he revealed upon his arrival in La Liga. "'I can’t not go there.'"

4. Cristiano Ronaldo - €94m

The fierce enmity between Barcelona and Real Madrid can even seep beyond the secular realm.

When Cristiano Ronaldo's record-breaking move to Real Madrid was sealed in the summer of 2009, the Bishop of Barcelona chastised the fee as immoral. When the Catalans broke the bank to buy Zlatan Ibrahimovic the following year, Madrid's sporting director Jorge Valdano snapped: "I didn't hear any complaints from the Bishop of Barcelona."

3. Gareth Bale - €101m

It was only revealed years later that Gareth Bale became the first €100m player when he moved from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013.

The prolific hacking outlet Football Leaks claimed in January 2016 that Madrid had deliberately published a false fee for Bale which was less than the sum that Cristiano Ronaldo had commanded. The document also stipulated that Tottenham were prohibited from revealing any financial details surrounding the deal.

2. Jude Bellingham - €103m

Whether he's playing in front of 80,000 fans bellowing his name, captaining his team in the Champions League or lining up for a World Cup knockout game, Jude Bellingham scarcely looks flustered.

However, the prodigious midfielder did momentarily lose his cool when he heard of Real Madrid's interest. "I got goosebumps, my heart was close to stopping," he reflected, with composure fully restored, at his unveiling. "It's just something you don't expect, to be able to play for a team like this. So when it actually manifests itself, it's an amazing feeling."

1. Eden Hazard - €115

The most expensive signing in the history of Real Madrid never once played in the most important game of the season.

Real Madrid faced Barcelona 12 times across three different competitions during Eden Hazard's dire four years in the Spanish capital. Yet, the Belgian failed to appear in a single Clasico, sidelined initially through injury and then out of necessity.