Top 5 highest transfer revenue generating players
The transfer market scenario has changed drastically over the years. From clubs scouting young and talented players and signing them for cheap to them spending a huge amount of money on a single player tailored for a specific job, the transfer market has come a long way.
With clubs going in for quality over quantity, spending huge amounts of money on a single player has become the trend and clubs have started to raise the price tags of their prized assets in order to ward off interest from other clubs.
However, as seen in the Neymar transfer saga, money is not a concern when a club is determined to make a signing. While we wait for another exciting transfer or contract extension in the ongoing window, following is a list of the players with the highest transfer revenues generated in their illustrious careers as professional footballers.
#5 Romelu Lukaku - €132 Million
Romelu Lukaku has always been a special player. Since making his professional debut at age 16 to winning the league with Anderlecht as the top scorer, he has been a striker primed for success.
The big Belgian attacker has been playing in the Premier League since 2011 when he was signed by Chelsea for €12 million which is a staggering amount for an 18-year-old kid. He did not feature exclusively for the club in that season and the need for more game time saw him move to West-Brom on loan for a year.
In 2013, the player moved away from his parent club, in search of more game time, to Everton- his second loan spell in two years.
He scored 15 goals in the league that season and became popular among fans and critics. Everton did not hesitate and signed him on a five-year deal in July 2014, for a club record fee of €35 million.
His goal scoring form continued and his market value increased by the day, as he went on to score 51 times by the end of the 2016-17 season. His ambition to play in the Champions League and win silverware saw him reject a contract extension, and a move back to Chelsea seemed imminent in the summer of 2017.
However, a last minute call from Jose Mourinho saw the player move to Manchester United for a whopping €85 million. The player has resumed business as usual, having found the back of the net 10 times this season for Manchester United in the league and at a young age of 24, the sky is the limit for him.