History of how the football transfer record was broken over the last century

Neymar is now the most expensive player in the worldThe first football transfer of a player between clubs took place in 1893 – a few years after the Football Association in England made the sport professional. Until then, only amateur teams with part-time players who had other jobs played for clubs. But once it became a professional sport, so did the players. With that move, players soon became in demand throughout the country and, later, throughout the world. Since that first transfer, more than 12 decades have passed and thousands of players have moved from one club to another.We look at the various transfers that broke the record over more than a century of football. Last updated: 3 August 2017

#1 1893-1925: British clubs pave the way

Willie Groves (circled) – The first ever professional footballer to be transferred at £100

The first player to ever be transferred between two clubs was Willie Groves – a striker from Scotland. Back in 1893, Groves was sold by West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa for £100 – a huge sum of money back in the day.

It was also probably the first ever case of a club poaching a player and convincing him to sign, a move which landed Villa in trouble with the FA who fined the Midlands club. However, the club would have no complaints as he would help them win the league title the next season.

It wasn’t until the turn of the 20th century that the record would be broken, again by another Scottish footballer, Andy McCombie. The right-back was bought by Newcastle from derby rivals Sunderland for £700. McCombie played for the Magpies for six years and eventually became a member of the coaching staff after his retirement.

English forward Alf Common then became the first player to be sold for £1,000 when Middlesborough bought him from Sunderland (who had allegedly paid £520 for him). But Middlesborough didn’t sign him to win the title – they needed him to avoid relegation. They would eventually survive the drop.

Year	Player	From	To	Amount
1893	Willie Groves	West Brom	Aston Villa	£100
1904	Andy McCombie	Sunderland	Newcastle United	£700
1905	Alf Common	Sunderland	Middlesbrough	£1,000
1913	Daniel Shea	West Ham	Blackburn Rovers	£2,000
1913	Tommy Barber	Bolton Wanderers	Aston Villa	£2,500
1914	Percy Dawson	Heart of Midlothian	Blackburn Rovers	£3,500
1922	Syd Puddefoot	West Ham	Falkirk	£5,000
1922	Warney Cresswell	South Shields	Sunderland	£5,500
1925	Bob Kelly	Burnley	Sunderland	£6,500

#2 1928-1951: Professional players in high demand

David Jack (C) was the first player to be transferred for over £10,000

In 1928, Arsenal would become the first club to spend a five-figure sum to sign David Jack from Bolton Wanderers. Gunners manager Herbert Chapman took advantage of Bolton’s financial troubles at the time to sign the forward and legend has it that he got Bolton’s club officials very drunk to bring the price down to an ‘affordable’ £10,890! It would pay off as Jack helped Arsenal win their first ever league title in the 1930/31 season. He would score more than 100 goals for the club before retiring in 1934.

By now football was slowly catching on around the world and South America was not far behind. In Argentina, Bernabe Ferreyra would be one of the country’s first ever football stars and the forward’s transfer from Club Atletico Tigre to River Plate. The transfer would be a huge success as River Plate won three league titles with his help. Ferreyra would own the transfer record for 17 years before Johnny Morris and Eddie Quigley broke the record in quick succession in 1949.

By 1950, clubs were much bolder (along with inflation) as league football became popular again following World War II and Trevor Ford was the first player to be sold for £30,000.

Year	Player	From	To	Amount
1928	David Jack	Bolton Wanderers	Arsenal	£10.8K
1932	Bernabe Ferreyra	Club Atletico Tigre	River Plate	£23K
1949	Johnny Morris	Manchester United	Derby County	£24K
1949	Eddie Quigley	Sheffield Wednesday	Preston North End	£26.5K
1950	Trevor Ford	Aston Villa	Sunderland	£30K
1951	Jackie Sewell	Notts County	Sheffield Wednesday	£34.5K

#3 1952-1973: Italy and Spain join the party

Barcelona’s Luis Suarez – The first player to be sold for a six-figure sum

Between the 1950s and 1970s, clubs in Spain and Italy were on the rise. Real Madrid were accumulating European Cups aplenty while as many as seven different clubs won league titles in the Italian Serie A.

Hans ‘Hasse’ Jeppson, a Swedish striker, was the first player to be sold for more than £50,000. At the time, his transfer to Napoli from Atalanta was worth 105 million Italian lira – a sum that earned him the nickname O' Banco e' Napule (the bank of Naples). AC Milan and Juventus would break the record in years to come but Inter Milan then made the headlines when they captured the signing of Luis Suarez from Barcelona.

The Spanish midfielder’s transfer broke the £100,000 barrier – and by a huge margin! While Barcelona counted their money, Inter would reap the benefits as they won three league titles and two consecutive European Cups.

Johan Cruyff joined Barcelona in 1973 for just under a million pounds

12 years after that transfer, Barcelona would come closest to the million mark when they signed Johan Cruyff from Ajax. Cruyff had just won three consecutive European titles with the Eredivisie club and he would soon bring the philosophies of the Dutch club to Spain and even help build the Catalan club that is now the most successful club in the world.

Year	Player	From	To	Amount
1952	Hasse Jeppson	Atalanta	Napoli	£52K
1954	Juan Alberto Schiaffino	Penarol	AC Milan	£62K
1957	Omar Sivori	River Plate	Juventus	£93K
1961	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	Inter Milan	£152K
1963	Angelo Sormani	Mantova	AS Roma	£250K
1967	Harald Nielsen	Bologna	Inter Milan	£300K
1968	Pietro Anastasi	Varese	Juventus	£500K
1973	Johan Cruyff	Ajax	Barcelona	£922K

#4 1975-1977: The Million Pound club

Giuseppe Savoldi – The first player to be sold for over a million pounds

In 1975, Napoli signed Italian striker Giuseppe Savoldi for £1.2m (2 billion Italian lira). While he couldn’t help them win the league, he played an integral part in the club winning the Coppa Italia and League Cup. Paolo Rossi's transfer to Vicenza would break the record again until an Argentine striker arrived in Spain in 1982.

Diego Maradona broke the transfer record twice in quick succession in 1982 and 1984. Barcelona would bring him to Europe where he acclimatised to football on the continent while Napoli would reap the benefits. In seven seasons in Serie A, Maradona would score 115 goals for the Naples side in all competitions.

Diego Maradona broke the transfer record twice with Barcelona and Napoli

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Italian clubs would spend big again as Serie A became the most happening league on the continent. Every big player wanted a move to an Italian club with a chance to play in arguably the best league in terms of quality.

The legendary Roberto Baggio moved to Juventus for £8m before French forward Jean-Pierre Papin became the first player to be signed for £10m. In England, Alan Shearer would be signed by Newcastle United for £15m in 1996, on his way to becoming the highest goalscorer in Premier League history (260 goals).

Newcastle’s Alan Shearer and his trademark goal celebration

Year	Player	From	To	Amount
1975	Giuseppe Savoldi	Bologna	Napoli	£1.2m
1976	Paolo Rossi	Juventus	Vicenza	£1.75m
1982	Diego Maradona	Boca Juniors	Barcelona	£3m
1984	Diego Maradona	Barcelona	Napoli	£5m
1987	Ruud Gullit	PSV Eindhoven	AC Milan	£6m
1990	Roberto Baggio	Fiorentina	Juventus	£8m
1992	Jean-Pierre Papin	Marseille	AC Milan	£10m
1992	Gianluca Vialli	Sampdoria	Juventus	£12m
1992	Gianluigi Lentini	Torino	AC Milan	£13m
1996	Alan Shearer	Blackburn Rovers	Newcastle United	£15m
1997	Ronaldo Nazario	Barcelona	Inter Milan	£19.5m

#5 1998-2013: Real Madrid get their way

Real Madrid signed Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo as part of the first Galacticos project

By the turn of the new millennium, transfer records would be shattered by Real Madrid on a regular basis. It kicked off with Florentino Perez taking over as the club president in 2000 and the first thing he did was to bring Luis Figo from Barcelona for a fee of £37m. The Portuguese winger would cross the divide and invite the Camp Nou fans’ ire, even having a pig’s head thrown at him during an El Clasico.

A year later, Zinedine Zidane was signed from Juventus for a then-record £45.6m. The French midfielder who had helped his country win the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, took the Liga club to their ninth Champions League crown, the volleyed winner in the final against Bayer Leverkusen now an iconic goal in football history.

Real Madrid broke the transfer record twice in one window to sign Kaka (R) and Cristiano Ronaldo

In 2009, the club would spend a combined £136m to bring Ricardo Kaka from AC Milan and Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. While the Brazilian midfielder’s move did not work out as expected due to injuries, the Portuguese winger-turned-forward would rewrite the record books every year.

His individual performances helped Madrid win La Decima (their 10th Champions League crown) as he scored 17 goals in the competition that season. He would also become the club’s top goalscorer in 2015, one of five records that will not be broken anytime soon.

In 2013, Tottenham Hotspur’s CEO Daniel Levy would prove to be a shrewd businessman as he sold Gareth Bale for a then-record £86m. Bale would also prove to be instrumental in the Copa del Rey and Champions League win in his first season.

Year	Player	From	To	Amount
1998	Denilson	Sao Paulo	Real Betis	£21.5m
1999	Christian Vieri	Lazio	Inter Milan	£32m
2000	Hernan Crespo	Parma	Lazio	£35.5m
2000	Luis Figo	Barcelona	Real Madrid	£37m
2001	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	Real Madrid	£45.6m
2009	Ricardo Kaka	AC Milan	Real Madrid	£56m
2009	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	Real Madrid	£80m
2013	Gareth Bale	Tottenham Hotspur	Real Madrid	£86m
2016	Paul Pogba	Juventus	Manchester United	£89m

#6 2016-2017: The transfer market goes crazy

Paul Pogba and Neymar – the two most expensive transfers ever

Manchester United would go on to break that record when they spent £89.6m to lure Paul Pogba back to Old Trafford after he left for Juventus for free four years earlier. The French midfielder was a target for Real Madrid too but super agent Mino Raiola got his way and Pogba became the most expensive player ever!

Many expected that record to be untouchable for quite some time judging by the trends in the transfer market. They knew it would have to require a world-class player to make a move to another top club. But the £100m barrier was within touching distance.

A number of people scoffed when Arsene Wenger said in 2016 that it wouldn’t be long before clubs paid £150m to £200m on a transfer. But he was soon proven right in the 2017 summer transfer window.

At first it was Kylian Mbappe who was making headlines after his breakthrough season at Monaco but his proposed transfer remained just a rumour. Then came the bombshell when PSG chased Barcelona’s talisman for the future – Neymar Jr.

The Ligue 1 club activated his enormous €222m (£198m) release clause and helped the player pay it himself – as required by La Liga. After a few initial hiccups, PSG got their man and shattered the world record for good!

Year	Player	From	To	Amount
2016	Paul Pogba	Juventus	Manchester United	£89.6m
2017	Neymar Jr.	Barcelona	Paris Saint-Germain	£198m