100 years ago, the most expensive transfers ever in football were mere thousands of pounds, with English and Scottish clubs shelling out for stars.
How things have changed: in 1992, Jean-Pierre Papin became the first £10 million footballer, before the record was broken twice more that summer – and 25 years later, Neymar would become the most expensive footballer of all time when he'd swap Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain.
Below, you will find the 100 current most expensive transfers in football, with a star icon denoting that player, at once stage or another, held the world record as the sport's most expensive footballer ever: all figures are presented in pounds sterling, with exchange rates applied as necessary at the time of the transfer, and these figures have not been adjusted for inflation.
The top 100
The 100 most expensive football transfers ever
The top 100 in chart view
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Crunching the numbers
So Neymar tops the list – and he probably will for a long time – but there are several huge transfers below the Brazilian's.
Kylian Mbappe is the second-most expensive player of all time, following his move to PSG from Monaco – and he's the most expsive teenagers of all time – with compatriot Ousmane Dembele at no.3. Dembele has moved for a cumulative £200m, fourth behind Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku.
Former Liverpool man Philippe Coutinho is in at no.4, Joao Felix and Jude Bellingham are no.5 and no.6 respectively – Bellingham is the most expensive English player ever – with another Red, Florian Wirtz, is next at no.7: Coutinho is still a record move out of England, while Wirtz is the most expensive Premier League buy ever.
Of the top 100 most expensive players of all time, six players appear twice – Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku, Kai Havertz, Matthijs de Ligt, Victor Osimhen – with Neymar and Lukaku appearing three times a piece.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, became the oldest player in the top 100 when he moved to Juventus from Real Madrid at the age of 33, while his 2009/10 move from Old Trafford to the Bernabeu is one of the three oldest transfers in this list (alongside Kaka and Zlatan Ibrahimovic).
On the subject of Manchester United, 18-year-old Leny Yoro is the youngest player on the list, sneaking in at 98th – and it may well come as no surprise that the Red Devils lead the list having bought 15 of the 100 most expensive players ever, while Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid are the best sellers with five sales each in the top 100.
Elsewhere, Nicolas Pepe is the most expensive African star of all time, and Christian Pulisic is the most expensive American player.
