The world transfer record: from £100 to Neymar

In August 2017, Paris Saint-Germain paid €222 million (£200 million) to trigger Neymar's release clause at Barcelona. More than nine years later, in 2026, that figure still stands as football's world-record transfer fee, longer than any previous record had lasted since the 1940s.

From the first £100 to the first millionaire

The record has roots far older than any big name in the modern game. In 1893, Aston Villa paid West Bromwich Albion £100 for forward Willie Groves, the first documented figure in what would become, decades later, an endless race. Early in the 20th century, the fee had already passed £1,000, with English forward Alf Common's second transfer, from Sunderland to Middlesbrough, in 1905.

The leap into the millions only came in 1975: Italy's Giuseppe Savoldi was sold by Bologna to Napoli for around £1.2 million, breaking the previous world record held by Johan Cruyff since his move from Ajax to Barcelona in 1973, for £922,000. One clarification is worth making: England's Trevor Francis is often remembered as "football's first millionaire", but his 1979 record was only a British one, Savoldi, and fellow Italian Paolo Rossi, had already passed £1 million years earlier, in Italy.

The 1980s: Maradona breaks his own record twice

Diego Maradona was the first player to break the world record twice. In 1982, his move from Boca Juniors to Barcelona cost £3 million. Two years later, in 1984, his transfer from Barcelona to Napoli, by then an established idol, reached £5 million, a new world record.

The 1990s escalation

The 1990s saw the fee for the world's most expensive player more than triple. In 1992, France's Jean-Pierre Papin became the first £10 million player, moving from Marseille to Milan; that same year, Gianluigi Lentini's move from Torino, also to Milan, for £13 million, set a record that would not fall until 1996.

In 1996, Brazil's Ronaldo Nazário, aged 19, moved from PSV Eindhoven to Barcelona for £13.2 million, a record broken just months later by Alan Shearer's move to Newcastle, for £15 million. A year on, Ronaldo broke the record again himself, moving from Barcelona to Inter Milan for £19.5 million, becoming the second player in history, after Maradona, to break the world record twice. In 1998, fellow Brazilian Denílson broke it again, moving from São Paulo to Real Betis for £21.5 million, and in 1999, Italy's Christian Vieri took the record to £32 million (€49 million), moving from Lazio to Inter.

The 2000s: Figo, Zidane and the record that lasted eight years

In July 2000, Luís Figo swapped Barcelona for arch-rivals Real Madrid for €62 million (£37 million), a deal still remembered as one of the most controversial in Spanish football history, since it was triggered through the release clause without Barcelona even being consulted. A year later, Real Madrid broke the record again themselves, paying Juventus 150 billion Italian lire (about €77.5 million, £46.6 million) for Zinedine Zidane. Zidane's record would stand for eight years, the longest-lasting mark since the 1940s.

2009: both records broken in the same window

In June 2009, Real Madrid paid Milan €67 million (£56 million) for Kaká, setting a new world record in pound sterling. It didn't last a month: in that same transfer window, the Spanish club paid Manchester United £80 million (€94 million) for Cristiano Ronaldo, breaking the record in both pounds and euros at once.

The 2010s: Bale, Pogba and Neymar's leap

In 2013, Real Madrid announced the signing of Gareth Bale from Tottenham as a new world record; documents leaked by Football Leaks in 2016 would confirm the exact figure: €100.8 million (£85.1 million). Three years later, in 2016, Manchester United brought Paul Pogba back from Juventus for €105 million (£89.3 million) plus bonuses, the highest fee ever paid at the time.

None of those records, however, prepared football for August 2017. Paris Saint-Germain paid the €222 million release clause for Neymar at Barcelona, more than double the previous record, and the first time a French club had paid the highest fee in history.

Why Mbappé will never appear on this list

Just weeks after Neymar, still in August 2017, PSG themselves closed the second most expensive transfer in history to this day: Kylian Mbappé, from Monaco, on loan with a mandatory purchase option of €180 million, the highest fee ever paid for a teenager. But when Mbappé left PSG to sign for Real Madrid, in June 2024, no fee changed hands at all: his contract had expired, and the move was a free transfer. That is why neither the French superstar, nor any player's huge wages or signing bonuses, ever appear in these rankings, they measure only the fee negotiated between clubs, never what the player himself earns.

Nine years unbroken

In 2026, Neymar's record has now stood for more than nine years, longer than the eight years Zidane's record held between 2001 and 2009, and the longest gap without a new world record since then. No transfer of the 2020s has come close, with the highest fees of the period well below the 2017 mark.

Does adjusting for inflation change the picture?

Corrected for simple inflation, no old record comes close to rivalling today's: Maradona's move to Napoli, in 1984, would be worth around £20 million today, a fraction of Neymar's £200 million. Analysts who use a different metric, based on the growth of football's own revenue rather than general inflation, reach an almost opposite conclusion: by that measure, it is Cristiano Ronaldo's 2009 transfer, not any old one, that tops the adjusted ranking, ahead of Neymar's 2017 deal itself.

The women's record, in a market that has also changed hands fast

In women's football, the world record has changed hands three times in three months. In July 2025, Arsenal paid Liverpool £1 million for Olivia Smith. In August, Orlando Pride topped that, paying Tigres UANL £1.1 million for Lizbeth Ovalle. In September of the same year, London City Lionesses took the record by paying Paris Saint-Germain €1.65 million (£1.43 million) for Grace Geyoro, a figure that remains the highest in women's football.

Among Brazilians, nobody comes close to Neymar: the €222 million paid for him in 2017 sits well clear of the next name on the list, Philippe Coutinho, sold to Barcelona in 2018 for €135 million.