The following is a list of most expensive association football transfers, which details the highest

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

fees ever paid for players, as well as transfers which set new world transfer records. The first recorded record transfer was of

Willie Groves Patrick William Groves (20 August 1868 – 13 February 1908)
Spartacus Educational was a West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

for £100 in 1893 (). This occurred just eight years after the introduction of professionalism by the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

in 1885. The current transfer record was set by the transfer of

Neymar Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992), known as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Paris Sain ...

from

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

for €222 million (£190 million) in August 2017.

Highest transfer payments in association football

Most of the transfers on this list are to clubs under

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

's jurisdiction and most of the purchasing clubs are from England, France, Italy and Spain.

Romelu Lukaku Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (; born 13 May 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Inter Milan, on loan from club Chelsea, and the Belgium national team. Lukaku began his senior club career playing for Ander ...

appears on this list three times for moves to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. Two players appear on the list twice:

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

and

Matthijs de Ligt Matthijs de Ligt (born 12 August 1999) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Bayern Munich and the Netherlands national team. De Ligt made his debut for Ajax's senior team in September 2016 in a cup game again ...

. All of the players on the list are of European (

), South American (

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

) and African ( CAF) origin. There are currently no players on the list from the remaining regions; North America (

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

), Asia ( AFC) and Oceania ( OFC).

World football transfer record

The first player to ever be transferred for a fee of over £100 was Scottish striker

Willie Groves Patrick William Groves (20 August 1868 – 13 February 1908)
Spartacus Educational was a Jack Reynolds (£50) made the switch from

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

in 1893, eight years after the legalisation of professionalism in the sport. It took just another twelve years for the figure to become £1000, when

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

striker

Alf Common Alfred Common (25 May 1880 in Millfield (Sunderland) – 3 April 1946 in Darlington) was an English footballer who played at inside forward or centre forward. He is most famous for being the first player to be transferred for a fee of £1,000 ...

moved to

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. It was not until 1928 that the first five-figure transfer took place.

David Jack David Bone Nightingale Jack (3 April 1898 – 10 September 1958) was an English footballer who played as an inside forward. He scored 267 goals from 490 appearances in the Football League playing for Plymouth Argyle, Bolton Wanderers and Arsena ...

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

was the subject of interest from

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, and in order to negotiate the fee down, Arsenal manager

Herbert Chapman Herbert Chapman (19 January 1878 – 6 January 1934) was an English football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most influential and successful managers in the early 20th ...

got the Bolton representatives

drunk Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...

. Subsequently, David Jack was transferred for a world record fee when Arsenal paid £10,890 to Bolton for his services, after Bolton had asked for £13,000, which was double the previous record made when Sunderland signed

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

's Bob Kelly a fee of for £6,500. The first player from outside Great Britain to break the record was

Bernabé Ferreyra Bernabé Ferreyra (12 February 1909 – 22 May 1972) was an Argentine association football forward. He was one of the first professional players in Argentine football to reach great popularity, to the point that he had a movie biography. Ferreyra ...

, a player known as ''La Fiera'' for his powerful shot. His 1932 transfer from Tigre to River Plate cost £23k, and the record would last for 17 years (the longest the record has lasted) until it was broken by Manchester United's sale of

Johnny Morris Johnny or Johnnie Morris may refer to: * Johnnie Morris (actor) (1887–1969), American comedian and actor *Johnny Morris (television presenter) (1916–1999), British television presenter *Johnny Morris (footballer) (1923–2011), English football ...

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

for £24k in March 1949. The record was broken seven further times between 1949 and 1961, when

Luis Suárez Miramontes Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

was sold by

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...

for £152k, becoming the first ever player sold for more than £100k. In 1968,

Pietro Anastasi Pietro Anastasi (; 7 April 1948 – 17 January 2020), nicknamed ''Petruzzu 'u turcu'' () by fans, was an Italian footballer who played mainly in the role of a forward. He started his professional club career in Italy with Varese in 1966, helpi ...

became the first £500k player when

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

purchased him from

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

, which was followed seven years later with

Giuseppe Savoldi Giuseppe Savoldi (; born 21 January 1947) is an Italian former professional football player and coach, who played during the sixties, seventies and eighties, as a forward. A versatile attacker, he played club football in Italy for Atalanta, Bolo ...

becoming the first million pound player when he transferred from

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. After

and David Jack, the third player to twice be transferred for world record fees is

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

. His transfers from

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

to Barcelona for £3m, and then to Napoli for £5m, both broke the record in 1982 and 1984 respectively. In the space of 61 days in 1992, three transfers broke the record, all by Italian clubs:

Jean-Pierre Papin Jean-Pierre Roger Guillaume Papin (born 5 November 1963) is a French football manager and former professional player who played as a forward. He was named the Ballon d'Or and IFFHS World's Top Goal Scorer of the Year in 1991. Papin was known for ...

transferred from

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

, becoming the first ever £10m player. Almost immediately, rivals Juventus topped that with the signing of

Gianluca Vialli Gianluca Vialli (; born 9 July 1964) is an Italian former football manager and player who played as a striker. Since retiring, he has gone into management, punditry and worked previously as a commentator for Sky Sport Italia. He is currently ...

for a fee of £12m from

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

. Milan then completed the signing of

Gianluigi Lentini Gianluigi Lentini (; born 27 March 1969) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a winger, usually on the left flank. He was once the world's most expensive footballer, when he moved from Torino to Silvio Berlusconi's Milan ...

for a fee of £13m which stood as the record for three years. The 1996 transfer of

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premie ...

from

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

, for a fee of £15m, kickstarted a year-by-year succession of record breaking transfers:

Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: As ...

moved the following year to Inter Milan from Barcelona for a fee of £17m, which was followed in 1998 by the shock transfer of his fellow countryman Denílson from

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

for a fee of approximately £21m. In 1999 and 2000, Italian clubs returned to their record-breaking ways, with

Christian Vieri Christian "Bobo" Vieri (; born 12 July 1973) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning to Italy to pursue his ...

transferring from

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to Inter Milan for £28m, while

Hernán Crespo Hernán Jorge Crespo (; born 5 July 1975) is an Argentine professional football coach and former player. He is the current manager of Qatari club Al-Duhail. A prolific striker, Crespo scored over 300 goals in a career spanning 19 years. At in ...

's transfer from

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

to Lazio ensured he became the first player to cost more than £30m. The transfer prompted the BBC to ask "has the world gone mad"? It took two weeks for the record to be broken when

Luís Figo Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo (; born 4 November 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a winger for Sporting CP, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. He won 127 caps for the Portugal national team, a one-ti ...

made a controversial £37m move from Barcelona to rivals

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. A year later, Real increased the record again with a signing of

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...

for £48 million (150 billion lire). Zidane's record stood for 8 years, the longest since the 1940s. Real Madrid continued with the ''Galácticos'' policy by buying

Kaká Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (; born 22 April 1982), commonly known as Kaká () or Ricardo Kaká, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. In his prime as a playmaker at AC Milan, a period marke ...

from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

for €67 million (£56 million), which was the world record in pound sterling. However, both world record in euro and in pound sterling were broken by Real themselves when signing

for £80m (€94m) from

in the same transfer window, Four years later Real Madrid broke the record again after completed the signing of

Gareth Bale Gareth Frank Bale (born 16 July 1989) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a winger for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC and the Wales national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wingers of his generation ...

from

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

in 2013. Although Real initially insisted that the transfer cost €91.59 million, slightly less than the Ronaldo fee, the deal was widely reported to be around €100 million (around £85.1 million). Documents leaked in 2016 by

Football Leaks Football Leaks was a leak in association football revealing "murky" financial transactions in the world of European professional football and exposes the tax tricks employed by some of the continent's biggest stars. It began with a series of in ...

revealed that instalments brought the final Bale fee up to a total of €100,759,418. In 2016, Manchester United eventually took the record away from Real Madrid, signing French midfielder

Paul Pogba Paul Labile Pogba (born 15 March 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the France national team. He operates primarily as a central midfielder, but can be deployed as a left winger, attacking midfielder, de ...

for €105 million (£89 million), four years after having released him to Juventus for

training compensation In professional association football, football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one football club, association football club to ano ...

. A year after the Pogba transfer, however, there was a major jump in the record fee.

matched the €222 million buyout fee of Barcelona's

, converted to a reported £198 million by different sources, or £200 million more than double the previous record. This was the first time that the record fee was paid by a French club.

Historical progression

Number of record players by country

Cumulative transfers

Managers

For football managers, the list is as follows:

Women

Two players appear on the list twice: Sofie Svava and

Crystal Dunn Crystal Alyssia Soubrier (; born July 3, 1992) is an American soccer player for the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division of women's professional soccer in the United States, and the United States ...

, the latter for two separate moves in one day. The players on the list include at least one from each of the continental regions: Europe (

), North America (

), South America (

), Africa ( CAF), Asia ( AFC) and Oceania ( OFC). However, most are European or North American; the purchasing clubs are all European, North American, or Asian. While more of the players on the list play as forwards than in any other position, most of the top ten (including all of those who achieved world record fees) are midfielders. ''This list only includes transfers where a fee amount is reported publicly. Fees are in thousands.''

Pairs

Occasionally, two players can be traded in one deal. Domestic moves in the American

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

(NWSL) are trades rather than transfers; where cash is involved, it comes from

allocation money Allocation money, in Major League Soccer, represents an amount of money that teams may use to sign players and/or allocate to their salaries to get under the salary cap. Reasons for obtaining MLS teams receive general allocation money for these r ...

, a fixed but exchangeable

asset In financial accountancy, financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value ...

of $400,000 per team that can be used to supplement player wages above the league salary cap, pay transfer fees to foreign clubs, or fund other player-focused improvements in order to attract talent and create competition.

Record progression

The first transfer of a female footballer was of Molly Walker, from Lancaster Ladies to

Dick, Kerr Ladies Dick, Kerr Ladies F.C. was one of the earliest known women's association football teams in England. The team remained in existence for over 48 years, from 1917 to 1965, playing 833 games, winning 759, drawing 46, and losing 28. During its early ye ...

in 1918; Walker was offered expenses paid as well as payment in lieu for joining the team. The first transfer fee for a women's footballer known to be reported as a world record was the £200,000 ($310,000; €235,000) paid for

Milene Domingues Milene Domingues Aganzo (born 18 June 1979), also known as Ronaldinha, is a Brazilian former footballer who played as a midfielder. Career Born in São Paulo, Domingues played in a promotional futsal team of models run by the Flash Book modeli ...

in 2002. At the time, there was little to no money in women's football and financial news focused on player salaries; Domingues received greater attention for the reported record salary she was to receive, though she ended up never playing for

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Lig ...

, the club that signed her, due to non-Spanish players being unable to play in the Spanish women's league at the time. However, Domingues was not a particularly skilled player, instead being a popular figure as the personable wife of

, and her record signing was made more for promotional reasons. She fulfilled promotional duties at Rayo while returning to play for her previous team, Fiammamonza, without salary. This transfer sum was not overtaken until September 2020, when Pernille Harder was bought by

for £250,000 ($334,000; €280,000). When, almost a year prior to Harder's transfer,

Sam Kerr Samantha May Kerr (born 10 September 1993) is an Australian professional football player who plays as a forward for Chelsea in the FA Women's Super League and the Australia women's national team (the ''Matildas''), which she has captained si ...

had also moved to Chelsea, focus was still on her large salary. In beating the near 20-year record by her transfer, Harder said she hoped it would help start to show that women's football can also be a club business like men's football and receive more money. Harder gave similar comments when her record was beaten two years later by

buying

Keira Walsh Keira Fae Walsh (born 8 April 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Liga F club FC Barcelona Femení, Barcelona and the England women's national football team, England women's national team. She is considered ...

from

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

for £400,000 ($457,000; €470,000). Walsh instead was coy, saying she did not think about the record much, that she wanted to play at the club and "it just so happens that's what they paid for er" ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

'' and

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

wrote that Walsh's transfer "shifted the ecosystem" and would likely have a significant impact on the market of women's football, that it showed "even the top clubs are not immune to the risk of losing their best players to rivals who are now willing to spend". It marked exponential growth for the transfer market; spending in

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

s had been growing, with the winter 2021–22 window setting a then-record for global transfers in one season at a total of around £364,000 ($488,000; €432,000). Walsh's fee alone in the summer 2022 window eclipsed this, with further high transfer fees being paid as a

domino effect A domino effect or chain reaction is the cumulative effect generated when a particular event triggers a chain of similar events. This term is best known as a mechanical effect and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically ...

supplementing the season total. The American NWSL introduced

(capped at $400,000) beginning with the 2020 season, allowing cash as an

to be involved in player trades. A significant number of players in this league then began being traded for cash assets, though none to overtake the record, between Harder and Walsh's signings. For the 2020 season, Spain introduced the "Compensation List", part of a wider agreement between women's football clubs as a step towards professionalism; the Compensation List rules that players under the age of 23 can only transfer between Spanish clubs for a fee, even when their contract is expired. The club they are leaving would set an asking price, and if no other club is willing to pay (and the player does not move to a club outside of Spain), the original club must re-sign the player with a salary increase matching a percentage of the asking price. There were criticisms of the Compensation List, as few clubs wanted to pay and it was seen to encourage young talents to leave the country.

Cumulative transfers

Top 10 female players with the highest total fees over all transfers.

Gallery

File:Chelsea vs. Arsenal, 29 May 2019 21 (cropped).jpg,

Kepa Arrizabalaga Kepa Arrizabalaga Revuelta (born 3 October 1994) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Chelsea. He is sometimes referred to simply as Kepa. A Basque native, Arrizabalaga began his senior club career with Ath ...

, the most expensive

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

File:Harry Maguire 2018-07-11 1.jpg,

Harry Maguire Jacob Harry Maguire (born 5 March 1993) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Manchester United F.C., Manchester United and the England national football team, England national team. ...

, the most expensive defender File:20180610 FIFA Friendly Match Austria vs. Brazil Philippe Coutinho 850 1692.jpg,

Philippe Coutinho Philippe Coutinho Correia (born 12 June 1992) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Premier League club Aston Villa and the Brazil national team. He is known for his combination of vision, ...

, the most expensive

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

File:20180610 FIFA Friendly Match Austria vs. Brazil Neymar 850 1705.jpg,

, the most expensive

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and the most expensive footballer File:2019-07-17 SG Dynamo Dresden vs. Paris Saint-Germain by Sandro Halank–129 (cropped).jpg,

Kylian Mbappé Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is renowned for his dribb ...

, the most expensive teenager and the most expensive player in a domestic transfer File:Keira Walsh 20181009 01 cropped.jpg,

, the most expensive female footballer

Notes

References

{{Most Expensive

Transfers Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

Expense An expense is an item requiring an outflow of money, or any form of fortune in general, to another person or group as payment for an item, service, or other category of costs. For a tenant, rent is an expense. For students or parents, tuition is a ...

Association football transfers Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

Highest transfer payments in association football

World football transfer record

Historical progression

Number of record players by country

Cumulative transfers

Managers

Women

Pairs

Record progression

Cumulative transfers

Gallery

See also

Notes

References