5 clubs that have broken the transfer record repeatedly
The transfer market has cemented its place at the heart of football over the years, providing, for some, as much entertainment off the pitch as we see on it. Keeping tabs on where players are moving to during the summer months keeps us football fanatics sane out-of-season and clubs selling and buying individuals is now the lifeblood of the beautiful game.
Some clubs enjoy transfers more than others and it’s certain that we’ve come a long way since the day of William Groves, who broke the transfer record in 1893 when Aston Villa became the first football club to spend over £100 on a player, eight years after professionalism in football had been officially legalised in England.
Transfer records now linger around and towards the £100 million mark and there have been numerous records broken and re-broken in the 130-year-or-so spell since Groves’ move.
Here’s a look at five of the most influential clubs when it comes to breaking the world transfer record.
#5 FC Barcelona
Although having boasted a golden generation of players over the past decade, including the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Neymar and Thierry Henry, the Catalan club haven’t broken the world transfer record this century. In fact, the last time Barcelona did such a thing was in 1996, when the club signed Brazilian Ronaldo from PSV for just over £13 million; the forward would be sold to Inter Milan a year later for £6 million more.
Apart from that transfer, Barcelona have broken the record on two other occasions, signing Diego Maradona from Boca Juniors in 1982 for a mere £3 million (that would now buy you just over a fifth of Patrick van Aanholt) and Johan Cruyff for £922,000 from Ajax in 1973. That’s certainly not a bad trio of world record signings.
The Spaniards have also previously shattered the record for the most expensive South American transfer of all time when they signed Luis Suarez from Liverpool for £65 million back in 2014.