Neymar Jr’s transfer to Paris Saint Germain has broke all kinds of financial records in footall as PSG bought him from FC Barcelona for a record $222 million (£198 million) more than double of what Manchester United’s paid for Paul Pogba (£89 million) back in 2016. Previous record transfers are a distant memories now as Neymar world record transfer set the bechmark for years to come. We breakdown most expensive football transfers of all times.
Top 35 Most Expensive Transfers of All Times
If we take a deeper look into the 35 most expensive transfer you can see that of the top 10 most expensive transfers 9 happened since 2013 while 27 of the top 35 transfers are also after 2013. Real Madrid bought Gareth Bale for record breaking £85 million back in 2013 which overtook Ronaldo’s Real Madrid which was followed by United’s Pogba transfer at £89 million. But PSG paid Neymar Jr’s full release clause (£198 million) in one go to lure the Brazilian to France.
Update: Neymar’s transfer to Paris Saint Germain on technically free transfer became the most expensive player ever signed by a fotball club. PSG paid £198m to Neymar who handed it to Barcelona to buy-out his contract. Neymar’s transfer is now the most expensive ever ahead of Manchester United’ Paul Pogba world-record transfer where United paid £89 million(€105m).
below is the list of top 35 most expensive transfers of all times. We have used the official transfer fees quoted in GBP.
| NO# | PLAYER | TRANSFER | FEE |
| 1 |  Neymar (2017) |
FC Barcelona to PSG | £198m |
| 2 |  Paul Pogba (2016) |
Juventus to Manchester United | £89m |
| 3 |  Ousmane Dembélé (2017) |
Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona | £97m |
| 4 |  Gareth Bale (2013) |
Totteham to Real Madrid | £85.3m |
| 5 |  Cristiano Ronaldo (2009) |
Man Utd to Real Madrid | £83.7m |
| 6 |  Gonzalo Higuain (2016) |
Napoli to Juventus | £75.3m |
| 7 |  Romelu Lukaku (2017) |
Everton to Manchester United | £75.3m |
| 8 |  Luis Suarez (2014) |
Liverpool to Barcelona | £75m |
| 9 | Neymar (2013) |
Santos to Barcelona | £71.5m |
| 10 |  Alvaro Morata (2017) |
Real Madrid vs Chelsea | £70.9m |
| 11 |  James Rodriguez (2014) |
Monaco to Real Madrid | £63m |
| 12 |  Oscar (2017) |
Chelsea to Shanghai SPIG | £60m |
| 13 |  Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2009) |
Inter Milan to Barcelona | £59m (40m+Eto’o) |
| 14 |  Angel Di Maria (2014) |
Real Madrid to Man Utd | £59.7m |
| 15 |  Kaka (2009) |
AC Milan to Real Madrid | £56m |
| 16 |  Kevin De Bruyn (2015) |
Wolfsburg to Manchester City | £55m |
| 17 |  Edinson Cavani (2013) |
Napoli to PSG | £55m |
| 18 |  Raheem Sterling (2015) |
Liverpool vs Manchester City | £55.2 |
| 19 |  Benjamin Mendy (2017) |
Liverpool vs Manchester City | £55.2 |
| 20 |  Kyle Walker (2017) |
Tottenham to Manchester City | £50m |
| 21 |  Angle Di Maria (2015) |
Manchester United to PSG | £49.7 |
| 22 |  Rademal Falcao (2013) |
Atletico Madrid to Monaco | £51m |
| 23 |  John Stone (2016) |
Everton to Manchester City | £50m |
| 24 |  David Luis (2014) |
Chelsea to PSG | £50m |
| 25 |  Fernando Torres (2011) |
Liverpool to Chelsea | £50m |
| 26 |  Carlos Tevez (2009) |
To Man City | £47m |
| 27 |  Alexandre Lacazette (2017) |
Lyon to Arsenal | £46.5m |
| 28 |  Zinedine Zidane (2001) |
Juventus to Real Madrid | £46m |
| 29 |  Hulk (2016) |
Zenit to Shanghai SIPG | £46.4 |
| 30 |  Bernardo Silva (2017) |
AS Monaco to Manchester City | £43m |
| 31 |  Mesut Özil (2013) |
Real Madrid to Arsenal | £42.4m |
| 32 |  Alex Teixeira (2016) |
Shakhtar Donetsk to Jiangsu Suning | £39.3 |
| 33 |  James Rodríguez (2013) |
FC Porto to AS Monaco | £38.5 |
| 34 |  Juan Mata (2014) |
Chelsea to Manchester United | £37.1m |
| 35 |  Luis Figo (2000) |
Barcelona to Real Madrid | £37m |
| 36 |  Anthony Martial (2015) |
Monaco to Manchester United | £36m |
| 37 |  Hernán Crespo (2000) |
Parma to Lazio | £35.5m |
The biggest clubs in football keep splashing the cash and bring in worlds best players to their club to keep themselves at the very top of football elites. Real Madrid seem to spend big on that one big player every year which is tauted to be the next big thing, they already broke their own record several times when they spend world record fee for a player transfer and Real Madrid’s several transfers feature in the top 20 most expensive player transfers in the history of football.
So today we take a look at the 20 players who cost most money in transfer fee and the average transfer fee for a top player has increased dramatically in the last few years which is pretty evident in the top 10 list of highest transfer fee ever paid by clubs.
Berbatov went to Man Utd for £31m, Managala to City for £32m, Robinho to City for £32m … I think your top 20 list is a bit inaccurate!
BUFFON
You might want to try to adjust for inflation. For example, Luis Figo (2000) would be a 58M transfer at today’s rate. It would make the list a lot more interesting and accurate.
You know nothing about football… Mata costed man united 37.1 Euros
Man City bought all of John Stones not just one Stone.
man utd had paid much for paul pogba…he is not a player of 105m€
i want to see him in barcelona to more than 105 € mill.
PAUL POGBA DINT PLAY UP TO EXPECTATION
agreed Paul Pogba does not deserve the the amount he was paid for. he seems to be just above an average player. if at all he transfers to big clubs like Real or Barcelona they will pay about three fifths of what he cost from Juve.Disappointing.
I think he I a good player.but self conifedence
true talk oo
true talk oo
your list is incurrate (benjamin mendy (mancity ederson morales 2 mancity) correct it pliz
Now is Neymar first. 195m to PSG
It’s unbelievable that Neymar has gone to £198m as Pogba should still be the most expensive player
Neymar joined PSG as a Free Agent. He was given the money to buy his contract release fee. In return he would sign for PSG as a player and also have other media and marketing commitments between now and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
There was no transfer desl agreed between the clubs so Pogba remains top of the list.
Santos are also not entitled to sell on fees as no transfer actually took place
Totally agree! It was not a transfer record at all, because there was no deal between FCB and PSG. In that way we have to include in the list every “free transfer” as any player gets some money after signing a contract. 😉
Just like stupid and wtf
Excuse me, but if Neymar paid Barcelona 222 M EUR to withdraw his contact (even money was given by PSG owners), how can it be considered as a transfer record? In fact he was signed by PSG as a free agent, wasn’t he?
Mbappè is the second one