What is the most expensive football transfer ever?
- Transfer fees have risen exponentially in the 21st century
- The likes of PSG, Chelsea and Real Madrid have all been big spenders
- Will Neymar's record transfer ever be smashed?
When Real Madrid signed Zinedine Zidane in 2001 for £47m, it was a world record transfer fee that saw jaws drop to the floor.
However, in recruiting the French maverick, Los Blancos were securing one of the best players the planet has ever seen and one who had won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or only three years prior. It was a record that would stand for a further eight years.
Nowadays, £47m is barely enough to sign 20-year-old Spaniard with one full season of senior football experience.
Football transfers have skyrocketed alarmingly over the past two decades and reached frightening new peaks. The sums dished out regularly by the world's elite clubs are truly mind-boggling and it's only a matter of time before the world record transfer fee is smashed once again.
But what is the most expensive transfer in football history and how much did it cost?
The most expensive transfer of all time
Many will remember this transfer well. Having joined Barcelona from Santos in 2013, winning multiple La Liga titles and the Champions League trophy during a four-year spell at Camp Nou, celebrity superstar Neymar Jr. decided to follow the money to the French capital.
Having pretty much completed football in Catalonia, the Brazilian winger chose to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 for a world record transfer fee.
Neymar would rock up at the Parc des Princes after Barca accepted a €222m (£198m) bid from PSG for the mercurial forward. He was offered a wage of approximately £520,000-per-week on arrival.
It was part of the Qatari ownership's project to bring the Champions League to Paris, something that Neymar was ultimately unsuccessful in doing despite some close calls.
When Neymar left Paris in 2023 after a period of torrid injuries, the Ligue 1 giants were only able to recoup £77m from his move to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia.
The most expensive transfer in Europe's top five leagues
Neymar is comfortably the most expensive transfer in Ligue 1 history, although PSG's £163m acquisition of Kylian Mbappe comes close to matching it. Randal Kolo Muani's £64.2m move from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2023 is French football's third most expensive deal.
Behind Neymar and Mbappe sits a certain Philippe Coutinho. It cost Barca a whopping £142m to prise him away from Liverpool in January 2018, making him La Liga's most expensive transfer in the process. Joao Felix came closest to surpassing that fee in 2019 but only cost Atletico Madrid £112.9m.
In the Premier League - the world's richest division - Chelsea's recent free-spending has seen them twice break the competition's transfer record over the past few years. Enzo Fernandez's £106.8m move in 2023 was swiftly usurped by Moises Caicedo and his £115m switch to Stamford Bridge just six months later.
Cristiano Ronaldo broke Zidane's transfer record when he moved to Real Madrid in 2009 but also smashed the Serie A record when leaving Los Blancos for Juventus in 2018. He cost the Turin outfit £88m.
Bundesliga sides have generally been the most modest spenders in Europe's top five leagues but Bayern Munich couldn't resist Harry Kane in 2023. They splashed £86.4m on the former Tottenham Hotspur forward.
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