Most expensive XIs ever at the ‘big five’ leagues

Matt Stead

We last did this in August 2016, but the money in football has gone even more mental since. Remember when Glen Johnson was the most expensive right-back in Premier League history?

 

Premier League
GK: Ederson (Benfica to Manchester City, £34.9m) – formerly David de Gea (Atletico Madrid to Manchester United, £18.9m)

RB: Kyle Walker (Tottenham to Manchester City, £51m) – formerly Glen Johnson (Portsmouth to Liverpool, £17.5m)

CB: John Stones (Everton to Manchester City, £47.5m)

CB: Shkodran Mustafi (Valencia to Arsenal, £35m) – formerly Eliaquim Mangala (Porto to Manchester City, £32m)

LB: Luke Shaw (Southampton to Manchester United, £27m)

DM: Tiemoue Bakayoko (Monaco to Chelsea, £39.7m) – formerly Fernandinho (Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester City, £34m)

DM: Paul Pogba (Juventus to Manchester United, £89m)

RW: Angel di Maria (Real Madrid to Manchester United, £59.7m)

AM: Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg to Manchester City, £55m)

LW: Raheem Sterling (Liverpool to Manchester City, £44m)

ST: Romelu Lukaku (Everton to Manchester United, £75m) – formerly Fernando Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea, £50m)

TOTAL: £557.8 (up from £474.6m)

 

La Liga
GK: Jan Oblak (Benfica to Atletico Madrid, £12.6m)

RB: Nelson Semedo (Benfica to Barcelona, £30.3m) – formerly Dani Alves (Sevilla to Barcelona, £23.5m)

CB: Dmytro Chygrynskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk to Barcelona, £21.4m)

CB: Samuel Umtiti (Lyon to Barcelona, £24.6m) – formerly Pepe (Porto to Real Madrid, £20.3m)

LB: Fabio Coentrao (Benfica to Real Madrid, £27m)

DM: Xabi Alonso (Liverpool to Real Madrid, £30m)

DM: Luka Modric (Tottenham to Real Madrid, £30m)

RW: Gareth Bale (Tottenham to Real Madrid, £86m)

AM: James Rodriguez (Monaco to Real Madrid, £63m)

LW: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United to Real Madrid, £80m)

ST: Luis Suarez (Liverpool to Barcelona, £75m)

TOTAL:  £479.9 (up from£468.8m)

 

Serie A
GK: Gianluigi Buffon (Parma to Juventus, £32.6m)

RB: Lillian Thuram (Parma to Juventus, £22m)

CB: Alessandro Nesta (Lazio to AC Milan, £21m)

CB: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus to AC Milan, £35m) – formerly Alessio Romagnoli (Roma to AC Milan, £17.8m)

LB: Alex Sandro (Porto to Juventus, £18.5m)

DM: Miralem Pjanic (Roma to Juventus, £25.4m)

DM: Joao Mario (Sporting to Inter, £38.4m) – formerly Geoffrey Kondogbia (Monaco to Inter Milan, £25m)

RW: Gaizka Mendieta (Valencia to Lazio, £28m)

AM: Manuel Rui Costa (Fiorentina to AC Milan, £30m)

LW: Pavel Nedved (Lazio to Juventus, £24.7m)

ST: Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli to Juventus, £75.3m)

TOTAL: £350.9m (up from £320.3m)

 

Bundesliga
GK: Manuel Neuer (Schalke to Bayern Munich, £19m)

RB: Evanilson (Parma to Borussia Dortmund, £10.5m)

CB: Javi Martinez (Athletic Bilbao to Bayern Munich, £31.6m)

CB: Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, £30m)

LB: Raphael Guerreiro (Lorient to Borussia Dortmund, £9.5m)

DM: Corentin Tolisso (Lyon to Bayern Munich, £35m) – formerly Arturo Vidal (Juventus to Bayern Munich, £26.1m)

DM: Renato Sanches (Benfica to Bayern Munich, £27.5m)

RW: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Shakhtar Donetsk to Dortmund, £24.4m)

AM: Mario Gotze (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, £31.5m)

LW: Andre Schurrle (Wolfsburg to Borussia Dortmund, £26.9m)

ST: Mario Gomez (Stuttgart to Bayern Munich, £26.2m)

TOTAL: £272.1m (up from £264.2m)

 

Ligue Un
GK: Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt to Paris Saint-Germain, £6.4m)

RB: Djibril Sidibe (Lille to Monaco, £12.7m)

CB: David Luiz (Chelsea to Paris Saint-Germain, £40m)

CB: Thiago Silva (Milan to Paris Saint-Germain, £33m)

LB: Layvin Kurzawa (Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain, £17.8m)

DM: Grzegorz Krychowiak (Sevilla to Paris Saint-Germain, £25.1m)

DM: Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht to Monaco, £21.6m) – formerly Joao Moutinho (Porto to Monaco, £21.5m)

RW: Angel di Maria (Manchester United to Paris Saint-Germain, £44m)

AM: James Rodriguez (Porto to Monaco, £38.5m)

LW: Javier Pastore (Palermo to Paris Saint-Germain, £37m)

ST: Edinson Cavani (Napoli to Paris Saint-Germain, £55.6m)

TOTAL: £331.7m (up from £331.6m)

 

Rest of the world
GK: Zhang Lu (Liaoning Hongyun to Tianjin Quanjian, £7.3m)

RB: Danilo (Santos to Porto, £10.8m)

CB: Bruno Alves (Porto to Zenit St Petersburg, £18.2m)

CB: Dmytro Chygrynskiy (Barcelona to Shakhtar Donetsk, £12.4m)

LB: Domenico Criscito (Genoa to Zenit St Petersburg, £9.7m)

DM: Axel Witsel (Benfica to Zenit St Petersburg, £32m)

DM: Ramires (Chelsea to Jiangsu Suning, £25m)

RW: Hulk (Zenit St Petersburg to Shanghai SIPG, £46.1m)

AM: Oscar (Chelsea to Shanghai SIPG, £52m) – formerly Alex Teixeira (Shakhtar Donetsk to Jiangsu Suning, £38m)

LW: Danny (Dynamo Moscow to Zenit St Petersburg, £23.7m)

ST: Jackson Martinez (Atletico Madrid to Guangzhou Evergrande, £32m)

TOTAL: £269.2m (up from £255.2m)

 

Matt Stead