20 Most Expensive Football Transfer Fees Of All Time

The following is a list of 20 Most Expensive Football Transfer Fees Of All Time, which details the 20 highest transfer fees ever paid for players as of the end of the winter transfer window of 2016.

The list contains seven transfers which broke the world transfer record: those of Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo, Hernán Crespo, Christian Vieri and Denílson, with the former five signing for Spanish clubs and the latter two signing for Italian clubs. The list also features a further 15 players who, at the time of the transfer, broke the national record for the club they were signing for: Ángel Di María, Edinson Cavani, Radamel Falcao, Fernando Torres, Carlos Tevez, Hulk, Rio Ferdinand, Thiago Silva, Juan Sebastián Verón, Robinho, Javier Pastore, Javi Martínez, Mario Gómez and Nicolas Anelka. Three of the top 100 became the most expensive teenager in history upon their transfer: Wayne Rooney, Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial all broke the record when they signed for English club Manchester United.

Spanish team Real Madrid have held the record for purchasing the most expensive player since 2000, when Luís Figo made a controversial £37 million move from Barcelona. Since then, the only player purchases to break the record have been Zinedine Zidane in 2001, when he was signed for £46 million from Juventus, the £80 million transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in 2009, and Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013.

Highest fees

All the highest-value transfers on this list are to clubs under UEFA’s jurisdiction, and most involve clubs in the Eurozone and/or the United Kingdom. The order in this table is based on the transfer amount in euros. Due to exchange rate fluctuations the order is different in pound sterling, which are also shown in the table.

As of 3 February 2016; after the winter 2016 transfer window.

Rank	Player	From	To	Fee (M £)	Fee (M €)	Year
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	Real Madrid	£80	€106	2009
2	Gareth Bale	Tottenham Hotspur	Real Madrid	£82.8	€101	2013
3	Luis Suárez	Liverpool	Barcelona	£82	€95.6	2014
4	Neymar	Santos	Barcelona	£71.5	€90.2	2013
5	Ángel Di María	Real Madrid	Manchester United	£71.2	€90	2014
6	Kevin De Bruyne	Wolfsburg	Manchester City	£69.7	€88.2	2015
7	James Rodríguez	AS Monaco	Real Madrid	£71	€79.5	2014
8	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	Real Madrid	£59.2	€75	2001
9	Raheem Sterling	Liverpool	Manchester City	£55.2	€70	2015
10	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Inter	Barcelona	£59	€69	2009
11	Kaká	Milan	Real Madrid	£56	€65	2009
12	Edinson Cavani	Napoli	Paris Saint-Germain	£55	€64	2013
13	Ángel Di María	Manchester United	Paris Saint-Germain	£49.7	€63	2015
14	David Luiz	Chelsea	Paris Saint-Germain	£50	€62.6	2014
15	Luís Figo	Barcelona	Real Madrid	£49	€62	2000
16	Yaya Toure	Barcelona	Man City	£51	€60	2010
17	Fernando Torres	Liverpool	Chelsea	£50	€58	2011
18	Hernán Crespo	Parma	Lazio	£44.6	€56.5	2000
19	Carlos Tevez	MSI	Manchester City	£47.5	€53	2009
20	Mesut Özil	Real Madrid	Arsenal	£42.5	€50	2013