The following is a list of most expensive association football transfers, which details the highest transfer fees ever paid for players and managers, as well as transfers which set new world transfer records. The first confirmed record transfer was of Willie Groves from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa for £100 in 1893 (), made just eight years after the introduction of professionalism by the Football Association in 1885.
The current transfer record was set by the transfer of Neymar from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for €222 million (£200 million) in August 2017, while the current record for women was set by the transfer of Grace Geyoro from Paris Saint-Germain to London City Lionesses for €1.65 million (£1.43 million) in September 2025.
Highest transfer records in association football The majority of transfers on the list involve clubs from the Big Five leagues, with Premier League clubs accounting for half of all player sales and purchases. Saudi Arabian clubs are the only non-Big Five purchasing clubs on the list, while the non-Big Five selling clubs include Ajax and Benfica. Overall, Real Madrid made the list eight times for player purchases, the most among all clubs.
Half of the transfers on the list reached €100 million. Romelu Lukaku appears on this list three times for moves to Manchester United, Inter Milan, and Chelsea. Enzo Fernández, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar appear on the list twice. All of the players on the list are of European (UEFA), South American (CONMEBOL) or African (CAF) origin. There are currently no players from the remaining regions; North America (CONCACAF), Asia (AFC) and Oceania (OFC). Ten French players have made their name on the list, the most among all countries.
Most transfer fees listed are not officially disclosed by the trading clubs and are reported by reliable mainstream media. Different media outlets may report varying transfer fees. The transfer fees are ranked in Euro (€) and based on the exchange rate at the time of the transfer.
+ RankPlayerFromToPositionFee(€ million)Fee(£ million)Year1 (1) Barcelona Paris Saint-GermainForward22220020172 Monaco Paris Saint-GermainForward180165.720173 (2) Chelsea Manchester CityMidfielder145.812520264 Newcastle United LiverpoolForward144.512520255 Aston Villa ChelseaMidfielder137.311720266 Nottingham Forest Manchester CityMidfielder135.511620267 Benfica Atlético MadridForward12611320198 RB Leipzig Real MadridForward1251072026 Paris Saint-Germain LiverpoolForward125106202610 (1) Benfica ChelseaMidfielder121106.8202311 Atlético Madrid BarcelonaForward120107201912 Liverpool BarcelonaMidfielder118.4105201813 Aston Villa Manchester CityMidfielder117.7100202114 Bayer Leverkusen LiverpoolMidfielder117.5100202515 West Ham United ArsenalMidfielder116.5100202316 Brighton & Hove Albion ChelseaMidfielder116.3100202317 (3) Inter Milan ChelseaForward11597.5202118 Newcastle United Tottenham HotspurMidfielder108.192.5202619 Borussia Dortmund BarcelonaForward10596.82017 Juventus Manchester UnitedMidfielder10589.3201621 Borussia Dortmund Real MadridMidfielder10388.5202322 Chelsea Real MadridForward100892019 (2) Real Madrid JuventusForward10088.32018 Tottenham Hotspur Bayern MunichForward10086.42023 Tottenham Hotspur Real MadridForward10085.3201326 West Ham United Tottenham HotspurMidfielder99.385202627 Lille Manchester CityMidfielder9581.42026 Ajax Manchester UnitedForward9581.3202229 (1) Manchester United Real MadridForward9480200930 (2) Paris Saint-Germain Al-HilalForward9077.62023 RB Leipzig Manchester CityDefender90772023 Napoli JuventusForward9075.3201633 Manchester City Tottenham HotspurForward87.775202634 Newcastle United ArsenalMidfielder87.575202635 Leicester City Manchester UnitedDefender86.680201936 Borussia Dortmund Manchester UnitedMidfielder8573202137 (1) Everton Manchester UnitedForward84.875201738 Southampton LiverpoolDefender84.475201839 Liverpool BarcelonaForward82.365201440 Leicester City ChelseaDefender80.970202241 (2) Manchester United Inter MilanForward80742019 Lille ArsenalMidfielder80722019 Athletic Bilbao ChelseaGoalkeeper8071.62018 Eintracht Frankfurt LiverpoolForward80692025 Monaco Real MadridMidfielder8068.32022 Atlético Madrid Bayern MunichDefender80682019 Monaco Real MadridMidfielder8063201448 Juventus Real MadridMidfielder77.546.2200149 Aston Villa Al-NassrForward7764.5202550 RB Leipzig Manchester UnitedForward76.566.32025 Notes
Statistics Country Players Selling clubs Purchasing clubs France1072 England82328 Belgium400 Brazil600 Argentina300 Germany182 Netherlands110 Portugal420 Colombia200 Ivory Coast200 Uruguay100 Spain1513 Italy143 Croatia100 Ecuador100 Morocco100 Slovenia100 Sweden100 Wales100 Saudi Arabia002
Most expensive player by confederation Confederation PlayerFromToPositionFee(€ million)Fee(£ million)YearCONMEBOL Neymar Barcelona Paris Saint-GermainForward2222002017UEFA Kylian Mbappé Monaco Paris Saint-GermainForward180165.72018CAF Yan Diomande RB Leipzig Real MadridForward1251072026CONCACAF Christian Pulisic Borussia Dortmund ChelseaMidfielder6457.62019AFC Kim Min-jae Napoli Bayern MunichDefender50432023OFC Chris Wood Burnley Newcastle UnitedForward30252022
World football transfer record The first player to ever be transferred for a fee of over £100 was Scottish striker Willie Groves when he together with Jack Reynolds (£50) made the switch from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa in 1893, eight years after the legalisation of professionalism in the sport. It took just another twelve years for the figure to become £1,000, when Sunderland striker Alf Common moved to Middlesbrough. It was not until 1928 that the first five-figure transfer took place. David Jack of Bolton Wanderers was the subject of interest from Arsenal, and in order to negotiate the fee down, Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman got the Bolton representatives drunk. 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's Bob Kelly a fee of for £6,500.
The first player from outside Great Britain to break the record was Bernabé 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 to Derby County for £24k in March 1949. The record was broken seven further times between 1949 and 1961, when Luis Suárez Miramontes was sold by Barcelona to Inter Milan for £152k, becoming the first ever player sold for more than £100k. In 1968, Pietro Anastasi became the first £500k player when Juventus purchased him from Varese, which was followed seven years later with Giuseppe Savoldi becoming the first million pound player when he transferred from Bologna to Napoli.
After Alf Common and David Jack, the third player to twice be transferred for world record fees is Diego Maradona. His transfers from Boca Juniors 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 transferred from Marseille to A.C. Milan, becoming the first ever £10m player. Almost immediately, rivals Juventus topped that with the signing of Gianluca Vialli for a fee of £12m from Sampdoria. Milan then completed the signing of Gianluigi Lentini for a fee of £13m which stood as the record for three years.
The 1996 transfer of Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United, for a fee of £15m, kickstarted a year-by-year succession of record breaking transfers: Ronaldo 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 to Real Betis for a fee of approximately £21m. In 1999 and 2000, Italian clubs returned to their record-breaking ways, with Christian Vieri transferring from Lazio to Inter Milan for £28m, while Hernán Crespo's transfer from Parma 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 made a controversial £37m move from Barcelona to rivals Real Madrid. A year later, Real increased the record again with a signing of Zinedine Zidane for £48m.
Zidane's record stood for 8 years, the longest since the 1940s. Real Madrid continued with the Galácticos policy by buying Kaká from Milan for €67m (£56m), 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 Cristiano Ronaldo for £80m (€94m) from Manchester United in the same transfer window, Four years later Real Madrid broke the record again after completed the signing of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013. Although Real initially insisted that the transfer cost €91.59m, slightly less than the Ronaldo fee, the deal was widely reported to be around €100m (around £85.1m). Documents leaked in 2016 by Football Leaks 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 for €105m (£89m), four years after having released him to Juventus for training compensation.
A year after the Pogba transfer, however, there was a major jump in the record fee. Paris Saint-Germain matched the €222m buyout fee of Barcelona's Neymar, converted to a reported £198m by different sources, or £200m more than double the previous record. This was the first time that the record fee was paid by a French club.
Overall, the majority of these record-breaking transfers have involved clubs under UEFA’s jurisdiction. England leads across all categories—producing the most record-breaking players, while its clubs have set the record the most times for both sales and purchases. Barcelona has broken the record for the highest transfer fee received five times, while Real Madrid and Inter Milan have broken the record for the highest transfer fee paid for a player five times.
Historical progression The transfer fees fluctuate due to exchange rate variations and are based on the exchange rate at the time of the transfer.