What are the most expensive signings in football history?

Do you know what the more expensive hires of the entire history of football?

Football is not only a sport that people are passionate about and moves around the world, but it is also a business responsible for moving millions and millions every year.

With each passing year, transactions made in the football industry have higher values and break records.

Even though countries go through financial crises and different sectors suffer from this problem, the world of football seems to work separately and does not feel the impact of them.

For all this, we decided to bring this article explaining what were the more expensive hires to this day in the history of football.

Spoiler: there has been a Brazilian in the top-1 for a few years now. Do you want to know who it is? So read this content until the end!

Neymar (2017): 222 million euros

A most expensive hire in the history of football to this day is that of a Brazilian: in 2017, Neymar Jr. was signed by Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona for a fee of 222 million euros.

This was the amount that the French club had to pay to terminate the Barcelona star and complete his transfer to Paris.

The signing of the Brazilian was intended to be a turning point at PSG, Neymar was hired to be the leader of the team in search of the Champions League title, to change the club's level in world football once and for all.

However, over time the Brazilian national team player lost space to the rising French star Kylian Mbappé and even the experienced Lionel Messi.

Despite having won national titles with the club and reaching a Champions League final against Bayern, Neymar's move to PSG, with a contract that still lasts until 2025, is seen as far from having met expectations.

Kylian Mbappé (2018 – 2022): 180 million euros

Kylian Mbappé is just 24 years old and was already world champion with France in 2018 and runner-up in 2022.

He has 12 goals in World Cups and has everything to become the greatest scorer in history in the future.

Today, Mbappé is an increasingly rising star and one of the greatest today, being PSG's leader alongside Neymar and Messi.

In total, his signing cost PSG's coffers 180 million euros to bring him to Monaco in 2018.

Of the 180 million paid by Mbappé, the final 35 million was in 2022 after the French club renewed its star.

This is because the amount initially paid to Monaco was 145 million, but there was an option for the amount to increase to 180 million euros if the player renewed or transferred before his contract came to an end with PSG.

In this way, Mbappé's move to the Paris team became the second most expensive hire of the history of the world of football.

Philippe Coutinho (2018): 160 million euros

Brazilian Philippe Coutinho's move from Liverpool to Barcelona enters the top 3 of more expensive hires of history.

In fact, this was the biggest signing in Barcelona's entire history, and when the Brazilian arrived at the Blaugrana team, he was a global star after many seasons as one of Liverpool's main players.

Hiring him, in total, cost 160 million euros, 120 million of which were fixed and the other 40 million in variables.

However, the values were not consistent with the player's results at Barcelona, with a disappointing spell, marked by injuries, which culminated in his transfer to the English team Aston Villa.

Ousmane Dembélé (2017): 135 million euros

When Neymar left Barcelona to play for PSG, the Spanish team looked for a replacement for their former star and found the right figure in Ousmane Dembélé.

In total, Barça paid Borussia Dortmund, the team for which the Frenchman played, a total of 135 million euros.

However, the high value, which was a very risky bet by Barcelona, proved to be a huge mistake.

The team's rush to find a replacement for the Brazilian star ended up causing the Spanish to throw a truckload of money away.

For many seasons, the Frenchman was extremely irregular and only in 2022 did he start to play well, which made him one of the stars of the French team in the Qatar Cup.

João Félix (2019): 127.2 million euros

In 2019, a young Portuguese man caught the attention of the whole world playing for Benfica and all the biggest clubs in the world wanted to sign him.

João Félix then ended up at Atlético de Madrid with the aim of replacing Antoine Griezmann, who had changed cities in Spain and gone to play for Barcelona.

Thus, his signing became one of the most expensive in football at a value of 127 million euros.

Although the player is a star and has a lot of quality, the fans' expectations regarding his signing were not met.

Much is due to the fact that the Portuguese did not adapt to the playing style of Diego Simeone's team, which led to him being loaned to Chelsea at the beginning of 2023.

Antoine Griezmann (2019): 120 million euros

If João Felix's move to Atlético de Madrid was not as Colchoneros fans expected, the same thing happened with Griezmann at Barcelona.

The French player, world champion with France in 2018, arrived at Barcelona with star status in 2019, after years of shining at Atlético.

His signing was worth 120 million euros, placing him as one of the more expensive hires of football, but he did not meet expectations and a few years later the athlete returned to Simeone's team, where he established himself.

Jack Grealish (2021): €117.5 million

This is considered one of the most unjustifiable signings in football due to the high value and quality of the player.

Jack Grealish was a standout at Aston Villa and in 2021 he was signed by Pep Guardiola's team, in one of the most important transfers in the history of the Premier League.

Despite this, Grealish is far from unanimous in the Manchester team and the English team, causing many to question one of the more expensive hires of football to this day.

Conclusion

As seen here, football is a true industry that generates millions every year and signings are worth increasingly higher.

In this content, we show the 7 main and most expensive signings in the world of football to date.

What did you think of the text about more expensive hires of football history?