The first £10,000,000 player - Jean-Pierre Papin
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In 1992 Jean-Pierre Papin signed for Italian giants AC Milan from Marseille, where the Frenchman had won four French league championships in a row. Unfortunately, the 29-year-old striker struggled to start regularly for the Rossoneri as he was plagued by injury problems.
He never went on to regain the deadly form he showed at Marseille, and eventually retired from the game in 1998 at the age of 35. However, he did learn a lot during his time at the San Siro, often naming former AC Milan coaches Fabio Capello and Arrigo Sacchi as the biggest influences in his coaching career.
The first £100,000,000 player - ???
The current world record transfer fee is £86,000,000, paid by Real Madrid to sign Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspurs. With many reports claiming that Manchester United are close to a £100,000,000 for Paul Pogba, that record may not survive this transfer window.
However, even if the Pogba deal fails to materialise, it won’t be long before we do have the world’s first £100,000,000 player. With the amount of money clubs are willing to spend in order to attract the biggest talents, it’s only a matter of time.
If Sir Charles Clegg could see the numbers being thrown around in player transfers today, he would surely have to pinch himself. After all, “no player in the world is worth £10,000”.
| PLAYER | YEAR | SELLING CLUB | BUYING CLUB | VALUE (£) |
| Willie Groves | 1893 | West Bromwich Albion | Aston Villa | 100 |
| Alf Common | 1905 | Sunderland | Middlesbrough | 1,000 |
| David Jack | 1928 | Bolton Wanderers | Arsenal | 10,890 |
| Luis Suarez | 1961 | Barcelona | Inter Milan | 152,000 |
| Giuseppe Savoldi | 1965 | Bologna | Napoli | 1,200,000 |
| Jean-Pierre Papin | 1992 | Marseille | AC Milan | 10,000,000 |
