In recent years, soccer has seen a number of high-stakes acquisitions. For more than twice as much money as Manchester United spent Juventus for Paul Pogba, PSG signed Neymar to a five-year deal for€222 million in 2017. Transfer funding came from Qatar Sports Investments, the firm that bought the French side in 2011 and hasbeen steadily increasing their roster ever since.
During the 2017/2018 season,Barcelona spent €265 million on Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho, both of whom are in the top five all-time highest transfer costs. Another large price transfer has taken place during the summer, indicating that the major European soccer leagues are making more money than ever before in income.
With Zinedine Zidane, worth €75 million,and Cristiano Ronaldo, valued at €94 million, smashing transfer records, Real Madrid havea history of splashing the cash as well. English Premier League teams may be the most likely to break the record for the most expensive transfer price in European football since the league produces more cash than any of Europe’s other major soccer competitions.
3 of top 10 most expensive transfers happened in the past 3 years
It was one of the most thrilling seasons in the history of massive transfer fees in the 2021-22 season. To be fair, the financial impact of the COVID pandemic had many soccer fans anticipating a lackluster summer and winter transfer market.
However, we witnessed some of the most costly transactions in history. By buying Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for a British record amount of €118 million, Manchester City sealed the largest transaction of the summer of 2021.It wasn’t long after that until Chelsea splashed out €115 million for Interstriker Romelu Lukaku.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic,Real Madrid ultimately completed the signing of Eden Hazardfor €100 million from Chelsea for the season 2019-20. Allthree players have thus far failed to make an impression and to make matters worse, they have fallen out of favor with their respective managers.
3 of top 10 most expensive transfers ever sit on bench
Eden Hazard of Real Madrid and Jack Grealish of Manchester City. (Denis Doyle & Pedro Salado/Getty Images)
Hazard’s life in Madrid hasn’t exactly been a cakewalk.He is anticipated to miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury, and he has thus been limited to 22 appearances this season in all competitions. The 31-year-old forward has only appeared in 65 games for Real Madrid and contributed to 16 goals (six goals and ten assists) in 3318 minutes of playing time.
On the other hand, Jack Grealish, formerly of Aston Villa, has been relegated to a supporting role under Pep Guardiolaat City after scoring only five goals in all competitions since joining. In addition, having started only two league games and none in Europe since the beginning of February, Romelu Lukaku has been reduced to the role of backup in west London.
The supporters have also turned against him, with a few boos heard following his substitution in his previous outing, a 4-2 home loss to Arsenal. There are several factors that contribute to his unpopularity, including a lack of goalscoring form and an unapproved interview with Sky Italia that alienated his team’s fans last December.
