Most Expensive Players in Football: Ranking the top 10 by transfer fees
Disclaimer: For players that would have appeared twice in this list, they have instead been chosen once with their latest transfer figure deciding where they rank on this list.
With the transfer market as inflated as it is right now, some of the fees paid in this list might not be as surprising to you as they could have been a couple of years ago. But as we get into the top three, I think you might just be shocked at the staggering numbers on display.
It's difficult to comprehend the sheer amount that's spent on players nowadays, with tens of millions being thrown around as if it's Monopoly money. But the brutal reality here is that in the footballing world, clubs have to virtually empty their pockets to ensure they get the player at the top of their shortlist, or they risk missing out to other clubs willing to do just that.
It becomes a Snowball Effect in the sense that once one player goes for, say, £50 million, another player of around the same calibre will have their market value soar to match. And any player who thinks that they're better than the £50 million player will immediately want to be transferred for a higher fee, and on it goes.
Without any further adieu, let's take a look at the ten most expensive players in world football right now.
#10 Virgil Van Dijk = £75,000,000 (Southampton to Liverpool)
Virgil Van Dijk is a 27-year-old centre-back who plays for Liverpool in the Premier League. He has also featured for the Netherlands 26 times, and currently captains the side.
Van Dijk first gained attention when he signed for Celtic from FC Groningen in July 2013. Celtic only spent £2.5m on the defender, yet within two years, they had sold him to Southampton for almost £15m.
So good was Van Dijk that he quickly adapted to life in the Premier League and became a rock for the Saints at the back, which drew attention from top European clubs, as well as those who had to come up against him in the division - like Liverpool.
The Reds had quite the ordeal when trying to sign Van Dijk in the summer of 2018, though. Just when it looked as if they were about to buy him, they were forced to apologise for illegally approaching the defender, an act which Southampton said that they would report to the Premier League if they did not apologise.
As a result, they had to end their interest in the player, which meant Van Dijk would remain with Southampton for a bit longer. However, he was desperately unhappy with how things had turned out and promptly handed in a transfer request in the lead-up to the January transfer window.
Liverpool were not going to miss out this time and offered Southampton £75m for the Dutch anchor, which they duly accepted, coming to the realisation that Van Dijk was going to remain a nuisance until he got the move he so desired. The amount paid for Van Dijk would set the record for the most ever paid for a defender, and it still stands to this day.