The Top Ten Most Expensive Football Transfers Ever
So the Ronaldo transfer saga looks to be finally over. After two long years of protracted courtship Real Madrid finally look set to get their hands on the Portugese winger for a world record £80 million.
After holding the title of world record transfer for eight years Zinedine Zidane’s transfer from Juventus to Real Madrid has been beaten twice in one week. Amazingly Real Madrid now hold the top four spots in our rundown of the world record football transfers.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo: Man United to Real Madrid – £80m (2009)
The news that Ronaldo is moving to Real Madrid maybe not so surprising but the whopping £80m transfer fee has certainly taken many by surprise, just where the hell do Real get their money from?
2. Kaka: AC Milan to Real Madrid – £56m (2009)
Ronaldo’s big money move means that Kaka only held the title of world record transfer for a few days but the £56m price tag broke an eight year wait for the record to be broken. Funnily enough Kaka turned down another world record transfer to Man City earlier this year, a wise decision from the Brazilian.
3. Zinedine Zidane: Juventus to Real Madrid – £45.62m (2001)
Way back in 2001 the majestic Zinedine Zidane swapped Serie A for La Liga in a transfer that smashed the previous record by over eight million pounds. The move was the pinnacle of Real Madrid President Lionel Perez’s Galaticos dream.
4. Luis Figo: Barcelona to Real Madrid – £37m (2000)
Figo caused uproar in 2000 by leaving Barcelona for their fiercest rivals Real Madrid. The £37m may have helped Barca’s bank balance but Figo was never forgiven for betraying the Cataluyan giants especially as he was pivotal to Real’s domination in this period.
5. Hernan Crespo: Parma to Lazio – £35.5m (2000)
Some of you maybe surprised to see Hernan Crespo this high up in the list (especially some of you Chelsea fans out there). But to be fair to Crespo, he was at the peak of his powers back at the turn of the century scoring 38 goals in 63 appearances for Parma in the two proceeding seasons before his record-breaking transfer.
6. Gianluigi Buffon: Parma to Juventus – £32.6m (2001)
At number six Buffon is the only goalkeeper in the top ten. No other keeper has come close to warranting such a hefty price tag since his move to Turin back in 2001 proving that the Italian stopper can rightly claim to be the best (and most expensive) goal keeper in the world.
7. Robinho: Real Madrid to Man City – £32.5m (2008)
A year or two ago no one in their right mind would have belived that one of the most gifted footballers of his generation would move to Man City from Real but that’s exactly what Robinho did in 2008. Maybe the £160,000 a week pay packet had something to do with.
8. Christian Vieri: Lazio to Inter – £32m (1999)
The second Italian on the list is the powerful Christian Vieri. Where ever he played he scored a tremendous amount of goals, which rightly justified Inter Milan forking out a then record fee of £32m for the striker. In his six years at Inter Vieri scored an unbelievable 90 goals in 122 appearances.
9. Dimitar Berbatov: Tottenham Hotspurs to Man United – £30.75m (2008)
Manchester United’s only appearance in the top ten is the purchase of classy striker Dimitar Berbatov. Whilst some might say that the Bulgarian has yet to live up to expectations it is still relatively early days to be dismissing Berbatov as a failure particularly as he helped United to a league and cup double in 2009.
10. Andriy Shevchenko: AC Milan to Chelsea – £30m (2006)
Proving that spending vast amounts of money doesn’t guarantee a club immediate success is the transfer of Shevchenko to Chelsea. Despite being a hero to the AC fans he failed to meet the standard of the Premier League scoring only nine goals in his two years at Stamford Bridge before returning to the comfort of AC Milan.
