THE TOP TEN TRANSFERS OF ALL TIME
With the summer window opening again, it got me thinking - what have the most expensive football transfers of all time been?
Well, thanks to the German wizards of Transfermarkt I had my answer and it raised an eyebrow or two:
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| Neymar's 2017 move to Paris is the dearest transfer of all time |
- Neymar - €222, Barcelona to PSG, 2017
- Kylian Mbappe - €180, Monaco to PSG, 2018
- Philippe Coutinho - €135, Liverpool to Barcelona, 2018
- Ousmane Dembele - €135, Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona, 2017
- Joao Felix - €127, Benfica to Atletico Madrid, 2019
- Enzo Fernandez - €121, Benfica to Chelsea, 2023
- Eden Hazard - €121, Chelsea to Real Madrid, 2019
- Antoine Griezmann, €120, Atletico Madrid to Barcelona, 2019
- Jack Grealish, €118, Aston Villa to Manchester City, 2021
- Cristiano Ronaldo, €117, Real Madrid to Juventus, 2018
What stands out are how many of those purchases did not bear fruit.
PSG's capture of Neymar and Mbappe seven and eight years ago still dwarf all others, but neither mega-buy, nor their acquisition of Lionel Messi, managed to bring the Champions League to the Parisians.
Barca's €135 for Coutinho was equally overpriced, as the Brazilian failed to recapture his Liverpool form at the Camp Nou and has subsequently failed to nail down a place at Al-Duhail, Vasco de Gama or Aston Villa. Ditto Eden Hazard, who was bought by Real Madrid to fill the vacated shoes of Cristiano Ronaldo but never impressed much and retired aged only 32 in 2023.
Ronaldo's move to Juve should be judged a success, where the Portuguese won two Scudetti (league titles) one Coppa Italia and became Serie A's capocannoniere (top scorer of the season).
It is also noticeable that eight of the top ten purchases were in the period from 2017-2019, when the market was on fire, but of the remaining two record buys over the last five years, neither Jack Grealish or Enzo Fernandez have yet justified their fees and Grealish is expected to leave Manchester City this summer after seasons of benchwarming.
In other words, the folly of football is plain to see in the list of history's most expensive transfers. Flavours of the month can come back to bite even the richest and most glory-hungry of owners. When it comes to buying and selling footballers, price and value are often two wildly different concepts and so many clubs have overpaid for players.
Judging by the costliest transfers in football history, it seems a bloated fee may even have an inverse correlation to success by putting too much pressure on a promising or already proven player.
(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile