How many €100m transfers have there been in European football?
The transfers of Darwin Núñez and Aurelién Tchouaméni to Liverpool and Real Madrid have added two more players to the €100m club.
The recent transfers of Darwin Núñez from Benfica to Liverpool and Aurelién Tchouaméni from Monaco to Real Madrid has extended the list of the “€100m club” in European football. Gareth Bale was the first player to break to nine-figure mark when the Wales forward moved to the Bernabéu from Tottenham in 2013, beating the previous record set by Cristiano Ronaldo when he did the same, transferring from Manchester United in 2009 for a then-world record fee of €94m.
The fees paid by Liverpool and Madrid for the Uruguayan and the France international, respectively, place them among the elite club. The Premier League side agreed a fee of €75m plus €25m in add-ons, while Madrid will pay Monaco €80m up front with another €20m in extras.
Neymar remains the world’s most expensive player
The most expensive transfer in football history remains PSG’s acquisition of Neymar in 2017, when the Ligue 1 side paid his buy-out clause – something that Barcelona probably thought impossible – of €222m. A year later, the Parisians completed the second most-expensive move of all time by paying the obligatory purchase option on Kylian Mbappé, who had joined from Monaco on loan at the same time as Neymar, the loan agreement being a way for PSG to tie up the deal without falling foul of FFP regulations. The fee for Mbappé was €180m.
In total, there are now 14 members of the €100m club (in terms of euros), including Núñez and Tchouaméni, with Ronaldo sealing his place on the list when he moved from Madrid to Juventus in 2018 for a fee of €100m.
Full list of €100m transfers in football
1: Neymar: Barcelona to PSG (€222m)
2: Kylian Mbappé: Monaco to PSG (€180m)
3: Philippe Coutinho: Liverpool to Barcelona (€145m)
4: João Félix: Benfica to Atlético Madrid (€126m)
5: Antoine Griezmann: Atlético Madrid to Barcelona (€120m)
6: Jack Grealish: Aston Villa to Manchester City (€117m)
7: Romelu Lukaku: Inter Milan to Chelsea (€115m)
8: Ousmane Dembélé: Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona (€105)
9: Paul Pogba: Juventus to Manchester United (€105m)
10: Eden Hazard: Chelsea to Real Madrid (€100m)
11: Cristiano Ronaldo: Real Madrid to Juventus (€100m)
12: Gareth Bale: Tottenham to Real Madrid (€100m)
13: Aurelién Tchouaméni: Monaco to Real Madrid (€100m)
14: Darwin Núñez: Benfica to Liverpool (€100m)