Transfers of elite players have now reached eye-watering sums that simply would've been unimaginable a couple of decades ago, with the valuations of players skyrocketing in the modern era.
Indeed, football has come a long way since the first-ever footballer to be transferred happened in 1893, when Scottish striker Willie Groves moved from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa for £100.
Now, clubs are required to pay around one million times more than Groves' ground-breaking deal, with the same old clubs continuing to crop up time and time again.
For housekeeping sake, these figures reflect the overall fee involving potential add-ons in the deal, rather than just the initial fee. They are also listed by their value in pounds sterling at the time the transfer took place.
The top 20 most expensive transfers ever
20. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur to Bayern Munich, £82m, 2023)
20. Antony (Ajax to Manchester United, £85m, 2022)
Manchester United were chasing Antony for months before finally tying him down to a contract, Ajax playing hardball over the cost of their Brazilian winger. Eventually the fee stood at £80.75m, with £4.25m available in add-ons.
He's yet to prove his full worth for Erik ten Hag and Manchester United currently, but is showing glimpses of his undoubted quality each week. Still in his early 20s, Antony certainly has plenty of potential to grow.
19. Gareth Bale (Tottenham to Real Madrid, £85.3m, 2013)
Bale’s move to Madrid broke the world record transfer fee at the time, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s switch to the Spanish capital four years earlier.
Although the Welshman’s relationship with the club soured towards the end of his time in the Spanish capital, he did produce some incredible moments for the La Liga giants, including *that* overhead kick in the Champions League final victory over Liverpool in 2018 - one of five European crowns he has won with Real Madrid.
18. Neymar (PSG to Al-Hilal, £86m, 2023)
Paying £86m for a 31-year-old who has flattered to deceive in recent seasons is a risky move - but not for Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal, who have promptly made the Brazilian their poster boy.
Injuries savaged the start of his career in the Saudi Pro League, however, vindicating PSG's decision to sell him. The French side also managed to get a pretty solid return on their initial investment, as will be evident later on...
17. Harry Kane (Tottenham to Bayern Munich, £86.4m, 2023)
Regularly linked with moves away from Tottenham in search of trophies, Harry Kane finally got his move in the summer of 2023 when Bayern Munich stumped up £86.4m to land the English striker. With a strike rate better than a goal-a-game, he hit the ground running in Bavaria to prove his value to already one of the best sides in Europe.
Much has been made about his figure, too, with plenty of reports all suggesting Bayern had paid anywhere from £80m to well over £100m - the details haven't definitively been disclosed when it comes to bonus payments.
16. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid to Juventus, £88m, 2018)
Shockingly, Ronaldo's first mega-money move - from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 - doesn't even make this list. Perhaps even more surprising is the fact that his switch to Juventus is the more expensive switch of his career, too. The football world gasped when Real Madrid’s all-time top scorer suddenly sealed an unexpected move to Turin in 2018 for a club-record fee.
Ronaldo won two Serie A titles in three years in Italy, before returning to United in 2021 after a declining Juve side narrowly scraped to a fourth-placed finish under Andrea Pirlo.
15. Mykhalo Mudryk (Shakhtar Donetsk to Chelsea, £88.5m, 2023)
Perhaps the greatest transfer steal in history, Arsenal looked in pole position to sign Mudryk in the January 2023 window. That is, until Chelsea nipped in and blew them out the water with a much-improved offer.
Mudryk initially cost Chelsea £62m, with a further £26.5m added to his figure by Shakhtar Donetsk through very achievable add-ons and clauses in his seven-and-a-half year contract.
14. Eden Hazard (Chelsea to Real Madrid, £89m, 2019)
Real forked out an initial £89m to prise Hazard from Chelsea’s grasp three years ago, but the deal agreed had a potential total cost exceeding a whopping £150m. Obviously, his lack of quality performances meant Chelsea never saw those bonuses, while Real must still rue the decision to sign him.
The Belgian failed to replicate his dazzling Blues form in Madrid and fitness issues plagued his time there. Hazard managed to score just seven times in total for Real, before calling time on his career at just 32.
13. Paul Pogba (Juventus to Manchester United, £89m, 2016)
United splashed out a then-world record fee to bring Pogba back to Old Trafford from Juventus in 2016, four years after departing Manchester for just £1.5m.
Things didn't quite worked out as Jose Mourinho hoped they would when the signing was first announced. The Portuguese boss said Pogba could be “the heart of the club” for a decade, but the Frenchman struggled to find consistent form and eventually left to Juventus, again, for free in the summer of 2021 when his contract expired.
12. Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan to Chelsea, £97.5m, 2021)
Lukaku re-joined Chelsea for a massive fee in 2021, after two superb years in Italy with Inter Milan, but the Belgian struggled to live up to the price tag and has spent seasons on loan back at Inter and with Roma.
The £97.5m fee fell just short of the British transfer record, but made the striker the player with the largest total transfer value of all time, as a combined £290m has been spent on him by various clubs over the years.
11. Jack Grealish (Aston Villa to Manchester City, £100m, 2021)
Grealish’s £100m move from Aston Villa to Manchester City was a British transfer record at the time, surpassing the £89m deal that took Paul Pogba to Man United in 2016.
He also became the most expensive English player ever, knocking Harry Maguire off the top of the list two years after his England team-mate’s move to Old Trafford. He has since had to relinquish that crown - though we're sure a treble more than makes up for it.
10. Declan Rice (West Ham to Arsenal, £105m, 2023)
Leaving West Ham with the Europa Conference League trophy was the best thing that Declan Rice could've done, as well as the £105m needed to get him out of east London.
And the Englishman has settled in superbly at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta, dominating midfield battles and proving his worth to the Gunners with a series of excellent displays. Sure, there have been teething problems, but Rice has all the qualities of a future legend.
9. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid to Barcelona, £107m, 2019)
Barcelona met Griezmann’s hefty buyout clause in the summer of 2019 after a long-running transfer saga, but it proved to be something of an expensive mistake.
The France forward spent just two seasons at Camp Nou before returning to Atletico Madrid on loan, with Diego Simeone's side then paying £34m for him in an obligation to buy clause. Not bad business for Atleti - terrible for Barca.
8. Enzo Fernandez (Benfica to Chelsea, £107m, 2023)
After a drawn out transfer saga in the January 2023 window, Chelsea eventually met Benfica's £107m release clause inserted into Fernandez's contract, ensuring he would move to Stamford Bridge just six months after joining the Portuguese giants for less than £15m.
He excelled at the World Cup with Argentina, though, winning the tournament and the Young Player award, too. While he cost the same as Griezmann, Chelsea actually paid €1m more due to the exchange rate change over the intervening three-and-a-half years.
7. Joao Felix (Benfica to Atletico Madrid, £112.9m, 2019)
Atleti’s massive outlay on the relatively untested Portuguese prospect took some by surprise in July 2019, but the Spaniards had faith that they would get bang for their buck in the long run.
Felix’s move hasn't exactly gone to plan, though, joining Chelsea on loan for half of the 2022/23 season before Barcelona temporarily offered him a home in 2023/24. Still a young player with bags of potential, Felix is enjoying life more in Catalonia - meaning there's still time to develop into his humungous price tag.
6. Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid, £114m, 2023)
When securing the signing of the hottest prospect in Europe, Real Madrid would have been forgiven for allowing Jude Bellingham a little time to settle into his new surroundings, despite the hefty price tag. Not that he needed it.
Since arriving in Madrid, Bellingham has become arguably the best player in the world, scoring goal after goal and putting in match-winning displays on a consistent basis. Though the initial outlay was £88.5m, Bellingham is bound to hit every single add-on inserted into the deal.
5. Moises Caicedo (Brighton to Chelsea, £115m, 2023)
After missing out on a January 2023 move to Arsenal, Caicedo knuckled down to add a couple tens of more millions onto his already inflated price tag, which Brighton duly appreciated. Liverpool first came calling, but the Ecuadorians heart always seemed set on Chelsea - and he finally earned his move in the summer of 2023.
While it's not quite been a match made in heaven for the most-expensive player transferred in the UK, there's still plenty of time for Caicedo to pay Chelsea back with the performances he's certainly capable of.
4. Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona, £135.5m, 2017)
While Barcelona paid an initial £96.8m fee to Borussia Dortmund for Dembele, the deal still has the potential to rise to an incredible £135.5m.
The forward earned his Camp Nou move on the back of his excellent form in Germany, but he largely struggled for form in Spain before moving to PSG in the summer of 2023.
3. Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool to Barcelona, £142m, 2018)
Coutinho’s signing was another spectacular moment of transfer market misjudgement from Barcelona, which ultimately contributed to the crippling financial problems that saw Lionel Messi leave last summer.
The deal for the Brazilian playmaker, who swapped Catalunya for Aston Villa after a torrid four years at Barca, initially cost £105m, with the figure eventually reaching £142m through add-ons.
2. Kylian Mbappe (Monaco to PSG, £163m, 2018)
Mbappe’s move from Monaco was made permanent in the summer of 2018, when the teenage striker was fresh off winning the World Cup with France.
It followed quickly in the footsteps of the Qatar-backed club’s staggering signing of Neymar, with the one-year loan spell prior to the permanent transfer being an apparent effort to comply with Financial Fair Play rules.
1. Neymar (Barcelona to PSG, £198m, 2017)
PSG’s jaw-dropping deal for Neymar in 2017 wasn’t just the biggest financial flex their Qatari owners have ever made, but a moment that changed the transfer market forever.
The notion that a footballer could be worth £198m (€222m), at a time when the previous world record stood at £89m, altered the way that clubs valued their players and paved the way for plenty more moves involving nine-figure sums.
