From Figo to Ferdinand to Félix: The most expensive transfers per season since 2000/01
From Luís Figo’s scandalous move to Real Madrid, to the burned Fernando Torres jerseys after his transfer to Chelsea, to João Félix, who cost €126 million – 20 years of Transfermarkt also mean 20 years of transfer madness. In celebration of the anniversary, TM looks back on the most expensive transfers per season in this millennium.
The biggest deals at the beginning of the 2000s are mainly closely linked to the name of Florentino Pérez. Before his first tenure from 2000 to 2006, Real’s then president-to-be promised at his election to sign Figo from rivals Barcelona and kept his word. The Portuguese, who was subsequently considered a traitor by Barça fans, became the cornerstone of the Galacticos.
With a one-year interval between them respectively, Zinédine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham followed as marquee transfers. Ronaldo is the exception when it comes to the most expensive players per season: In 2002/03 the Brazilian “only” ranked second, as Manchester United spent €1 million more on Rio Ferdinand that summer – the Englishman is the only defender in the ranking of the most expensive transfers.
The fact that Real Madrid are even represented five times in total is also down to the re-election of Pérez in 2009. In the summer of his return, Cristiano Ronaldo was signed for €94 million. Four years later, Gareth Bale was the first player for whom a fee beyond €100 million was paid.
Drogba, Essien & Shevchenko: Chelsea with top transfer three times in a row
In addition to Real, then newly rich, Chelsea also advanced to become a club of big signings in the early 2000s. In the first season after the Abramovich takeover in 2003, Hernán Crespo, Damien Duff, Juan Sebastián Verón and Claude Makélélé were among the most expensive transfers in the world of football. In the following years, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Andriy Shevchenko even ranked at the top three times in a row as the most expensive transfer per season worldwide.
Torres, as the fourth Chelsea player in the ranking, has a special role in two respects: The Spaniard is the only player in the selection, who changed clubs in the winter transfer window, and – in addition – no other footballer makes the ranking twice. Three and a half years before joining Chelsea, Torres was the most expensive player of the 2007/08 season when he moved to Liverpool.
Similar to the Blues, the multiple entries of Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City are mainly down to their owners. Man City, for example, bought Robinho for €43 million in 2008 – seven years later, in Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, even two of their players were at the top of the list.
PSG made Javier Pastore (in 2011) and, one year later, Thiago Silva the most expensive transfers of the season before they reached dimensions never seen before in 2017/18. The French club signed Neymar for €222 million from FC Barcelona, while in the following year they acquired the services of loan player Kylian Mbappé for €145 million.
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- Date of birth/Age:
- Nov 4, 1972 (51)
- Nat.:
- Current club:
- Retired
- Contract until:
- -
- Position:
- Right Winger
- Market Value:
- -
- Date of birth/Age:
- Nov 7, 1978 (45)
- Nat.:
- Current club:
- Retired
- Contract until:
- -
- Position:
- Centre-Back
- Market Value:
- -
- Date of birth/Age:
- Nov 10, 1999 (24)
- Nat.:
- Current club:
- FC Barcelona
- Contract until:
- Jun 30, 2024
- Position:
- Left Winger
- Market Value:
- €30.00m