Record transfer fees paid by Europe’s top clubs…

Ian Watson

Here are the record transfer fees paid by the top 20 non-Premier League clubs in UEFA’s co-efficient rankings

 

Real Madrid – Gareth Bale (£85.1m, Tottenham, 2013)
Real broke the world transfer record to sign Bale for around £5million more than they paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo four years previously. A record of 98 goals in 212 games suggests the Welshman was decent value, but THAT overhead kick in last season’s Champions League win – his fourth in five seasons – was probably worth the fee alone.

 

Bayern Munich – Corentin Tolisso (£35.2m, Lyon, 2017)
“Corentin Tolisso was the dream player for boss Carlo Ancelotti,” said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge when he sanctioned a €41.5million deal to bring the France midfielder to Munich before the start of last season. But Tolisso’s second season in the Bundesliga as the league’s most expensive player has been a nightmare, after the 24-year-old ruptured his knee ligaments only two games in.

 

Barcelona – Philippe Coutinho (£142m, Liverpool 2018)
Barca shattered their transfer record before the 2017-18 season to sign Ousmane Dembele but they went even bigger to finally land Coutinho from Liverpool last January. Both players have been linked with exits already, though there’s no chance of Coutinho joining Man Utd.

 

Atletico Madrid – Diego Costa (undisclosed approx £58m, Chelsea, 2018)
Chelsea’s negotiators deserved a pay rise after securing a whopping fee for a player who was told by text message months before the deal was agreed that the striker had no future at Stamford Bridge while Antonio Conte was in charge. The terms were laid out in September 2017 but the signing wasn’t official until last January. Since then, Costa has scored only four La Liga goals – a record so poor that Atletico are thinking of buying Alvaro Morata instead.

 

Juventus – Cristiano Ronaldo (£99.2m, Real Madrid, 2018)
It cost Juve around €112m to sign one of the world’s greatest ever players this summer and the fact Ronaldo has had a hand in 20 goals in 20 Serie A appearances suggests they got a bargain.

 

PSG – Neymar (£198m, Barcelona, 2017)
PSG’s dick swinging took the Brazilian to Ligue 1 a season and a half ago, in the process distorting the market beyond recognition. Neymar wants to go back to Barca, apparently. Was it worth it?

 

Sevilla – Luis Muriel (£19.5m, Sampdoria, 2017)
Eight La Liga goals was all Sevilla got for their investment, with only one goal coming this season before he was loaned to Fiorentina at the start of this month. Two goals upon his Viola debut suggests Serie A is more to the Colombian’s taste.

 

Porto – Giannelli Imbula (£14.2m, Marseille, 2015)
Porto immediately realised they had been conned into paying a record fee for the midfielder but Mark Hughes was an even bigger patsy, with Stoke offering the Portuguese side a £4million profit just half a season later. He was rubbish there too.

 

Borussia Dortmund – Andre Schurrle (£26.9m, Wolfsburg, 2016)
If Wilfried Zaha is to become Dortmund’s most expensive signing ever then the Bundesliga side will have to double the size of their current record deal. Indeed, there were suggestions in the summer that Schurrle might be used as a makeweight to land Zaha then.

 

Roma – Patrick Schick (£34.6m, Sampdoria, 2017)
Roma agreed to pay a record fee for the Czech striker in 2017 though it won’t be clear perhaps for another year if he costs more than Gabriel Batistuta did in 2000. The Serie A side will fork out around €40m by the time all the instalments are paid up. Seven goals in 45 appearances says Roma got a better deal with Batistuta.

 

Shakhtar Donetsk – Bernard (£21.5m, Atletico Mineiro, 2013)
The Brazil winger, now at Everton, joined Shakhtar to replace Willian, teaming up with compatriots Douglas Costa, Luiz Adriano and Fred at the Donbass Arena. In the same summer, Shakhtar also shifted Fernandinho to Man City and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Borussia Dortmund for sums greater than they paid for Bernard.

 

Napoli – Gonzalo Higuain (£34.5m, Real Madrid, 2013)
Napoli bought Higuain for a club-record fee before selling him on to Juventus for more than double that investment – another club-record amount – three years later after 71 goals in 104 Serie A appearances. Tidy business, that.

 

Zenit St Petersburg – Hulk (£39.5m, Porto, 2012)
The Russians were feeling flush in September 2012 when they forked out around €100m on the same day to land Hulk from Porto and Axel Witsel from Benfica. Zenit were cagey over the exact fees, but it seems the Brazil centre-forward was marginally more expensive than the Belgium midfielder. Regardless, Zenit got their money back on Hulk when he moved to China after four goal-laden seasons in Russia.

 

Schalke – Breel Embolo (£15.3m, Basel, 2016)
“There is a reason why Mourinho desperately wanted to sign him for Manchester United,” said Schalke director Christian Heidel after agreeing to pay €20m plus bonuses for the Switzerland forward. Two and a half seasons later, we’re still scratching our heads as to what that reason was.

 

Dynamo Kiev – Dieumerci Mbokani (£9m, Anderlecht, 2013)
The Congo striker scored 25 goals in 54 appearances in the Russian league to catch the eye of Premier League strugglers. Norwich got seven goals out of Mbokani in 2015-16, which is seven more than Hull squeezed out of him the following season.

 

Besiktas – Rodrigo Tabata (£6.3m, Gaziantepspor, 2008)
The Turkish side are forever being linked with Premier League cast-offs but their benchmark remains the Brazil-born Qatar midfielder they signed from Gaziantepspor over a decade ago.

 

Monaco – James Rodriguez (£38.5m, Porto, 2013)
The French side spluffed £60m to sign the Colombia and Joao Moutinho from Porto in 2013, but a year later, Rodriguez was off to Real Madrid for £71million, becoming the fourth-biggest deal ever. Now, Real want to use him as a makeweight to sign an upgrade from Spurs.

 

Ajax – Daley Blind (£18.5m, Man Utd, 2018)
United did pretty well out of the Holland midfielder. Four years after buying Blind from Ajax for £13.8m, they sent him back to Amsterdam to earn a potential profit of just under £5million if performance bonuses are due.

 

Lyon – Lisandro Lopez (£18.7m, Porto, 2009)
The Argentina striker, who scored 82 goals in four season, was signed for €22m to replace Real Madrid-bound Karim Benzema, who left Lyon for €41m. Jean Michel Aulas isn’t daft…

 

Benfica – Raul Jimenez (£18.3m, Atletico Madrid, 2016)
The striker became the most expensive Mexican player in history, and he looks likely to smash his own record if Wolves take up their option to sign the on-loan 27-year-old for £30m.