World football transfer record

The world football transfer record is the record for the most expensive transfer in football. The current record was set in August 2017 by Neymar's transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for €222 million (£200 million).

History
The first player to ever be transferred for a fee was Scottish striker Willie Groves, who was signed by Aston Villa in 1893 from West Bromwich Albion for £100. The first transfer over £1,000 happened in 1905, when Sunderland striker Alf Common signed for Middlesbrough. In 1928, the first transfer over £10,000 happened, when Bolton Wanderers inside forward David Jack signed for Arsenal for £10,890. Initially, Bolton had asked for £13,000, which was double the previous transfer record.

The first player not from Great Britain to break the record was in Bernabé Ferreyra, when River Plate signed him from Tigre for £23k. Ferreyra's record wouldn't be broken until 1949, when Derby County signed Manchester United inside forward Johnny Morris for £24k. The record would be broken seven more times between 1949 and 1961. That year, Inter Milan signed Luis Suárez Miramontes from Barcelona for £152k, making him the first player sold for more than £100k. In 1968, Pietro Anastasi became the first player sold for £500k, when Juventus signed him from Varese, which was followed seven years later by Giuseppe Savoldi becoming the first million pound player when he transferred from Bologna to Napoli.

In 1992, the transfer record was broken three times in 61 days: Jean-Pierre Papin's transfer from Marseille to AC Milan saw him become the first ever £10m player. Almost immediately, their rivals Juventus broke the record with the signing of Gianluca Vialli for £12m from Sampdoria. Milan then completed the signing of Gianluigi Lentini for a fee of £13m which stood as the record for three years.

Between 1996 and 2001, the transfer record was broken eight times, ending with Real Madrid signing Zinedine Zidane from Juvnetus in July 2001 for a fee of £48m (150 billion lire). That record would stand for 8 years, until Real Madrid broke the record twice in June 2009, first when they signed Kaká from Milan for €67m (£56m), and later when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo for £80m (€94m) from Manchester United. 

Real Madrid would break the record again four years later, when they signed Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013. Although Real initially insisted that the transfer cost €91.59m, the deal was commonly reported to be around €100m (around £85.1m). In 2016, documents would be leaked that revealed that instalments brought the final Bale fee up to a total of €100,759,418. 

In 2017, the world transfer record would be doubled, when Paris Saint-Germain payed the €222m buyout fee of Barcelona's Neymar, which was converted to between £198m and or £200m by different sources. That transfer was more than double the previous record of Paul Pogba's transfer from Juventus to Real Madrid.

List of transfer records
The transfer fees fluctuate due to exchange rate variations and are based on the exchange rate at the time of the transfer.

YearPlayerFromTo  Fee (£) 1893   Willie Groves   West Bromwich Albion   Aston Villa  1896 Fred Wheldon Small Heath Aston Villa  1903 Ben Green Barnsley Small Heath   1904   Alf Common (1)  Sheffield United   Sunderland    1904   Andy McCombie   Sunderland   Newcastle United  Jo Bath, Richard F Stevenson. (2013). "The Newcastle Book of Days". p. 31. The History Press  1905   Alf Common (2)  Sunderland   Middlesbrough    1913   Daniel Shea   West Ham United   Blackburn Rovers    1913   Tommy Barber   Bolton Wanderers   Aston Villa    1914   Percy Dawson   Heart of Midlothian   Blackburn Rovers    1920   David Jack (1)  Plymouth Argyle   Bolton Wanderers    1921   Tom Hamilton  Kilmarnock   Preston North End    1922   Syd Puddefoot   West Ham United   Falkirk    1922   Warney Cresswell   South Shields   Sunderland    1925   Bob Kelly   Burnley   Sunderland    1928   David Jack (2)  Bolton Wanderers   Arsenal    1932   Bernabé Ferreyra   Tigre   River Plate    1949   Johnny Morris   Manchester United   Derby County    1949   Eddie Quigley   Sheffield Wednesday   Preston North End    1950   Trevor Ford   Aston Villa   Sunderland    1951   Jackie Sewell   Notts County   Sheffield Wednesday    1952   Hans Jeppson   Atalanta   Napoli    1954   Juan Alberto Schiaffino   Peñarol   Milan    1957   Omar Sívori   River Plate   Juventus    1961   Luis Suárez   Barcelona   Inter Milan    1963   Angelo Sormani   Mantova   Roma    1967   Harald Nielsen   Bologna   Inter Milan  "Factbox – Evolution of world record transfer deals since 1893" . Reuters. Retrieved 2 May 2014  1968   Pietro Anastasi   Varese   Juventus    1973   Johan Cruyff   Ajax   Barcelona    1975   Giuseppe Savoldi   Bologna   Napoli    1976   Paolo Rossi  Juventus   Vicenza     1982   Diego Maradona (1)  Boca Juniors   Barcelona    1984   Diego Maradona (2)  Barcelona   Napoli    1987   Ruud Gullit   PSV Eindhoven   Milan    1990   Roberto Baggio   Fiorentina   Juventus    1992   Jean-Pierre Papin   Marseille   Milan    1992   Gianluca Vialli   Sampdoria   Juventus    1992   Gianluigi Lentini   Torino   Milan    1996   Ronaldo (1)  PSV Eindhoven   Barcelona    1996   Alan Shearer   Blackburn Rovers   Newcastle United    1997   Ronaldo (2)  Barcelona   Inter Milan    1998   Denílson   São Paulo   Real Betis    1999   Christian Vieri   Lazio   Inter Milan    2000   Hernán Crespo   Parma   Lazio    2000   Luís Figo   Barcelona   Real Madrid    2001   Zinedine Zidane   Juventus   Real Madrid   2009   Kaká   Milan   Real Madrid    2009   Cristiano Ronaldo   Manchester United   Real Madrid   2013   Gareth Bale   Tottenham Hotspur   Real Madrid   2016   Paul Pogba   Juventus   Manchester United   2017   Neymar   Barcelona   Paris Saint-Germain   

Number of players by country
 Country Player records Record selling Record buying England162020 Italy81418 Argentina531 Brazil510 France311 Scotland321 Netherlands230 Wales200 Portugal200 Spain159 Uruguay110 Denmark100 Sweden100

References

Category:Football-related lists