7 signings break €100m mark
©TM/IMAGO
Transfer windows as we know it with the summer and the January window were introduced in 2002, and have since become some of the most exciting and dramatic periods in the football calendar, as clubs splash the cash to bring in new stars. There may be no competitive club football in the summer months, but recruitment has become more important than ever in the modern game.
Manchester United have already laid out €74.2 million to sign Wolves’ Brazilian forward Matheus Cunha. That has set the record for the most expensive deal so far in this summer transfer window. How long that will stay at the top remains to be seen, but over the last 20 years which other players have held that accolade of being the summer’s record deal? At Transfermarkt, we have you covered. On the list, you will see lots of money spent, lots of top talent brought, and some transfers clubs might be hoping to forget.
The record transfer in each of the last 20 summer windows
Let’s start by going back to the summer of 2005, and the record signing that year ahead of the 2005/06 season was Chelsea signing midfielder Michael Essien for €38m from Lyon. Just 12 months later, a Chelsea signing held the accolade once more, as the club spent €43.9m to bring in striker Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan in the 2006/07 summer window. For the 2007/08 summer it was Fernando Torres’ €38m move from Atlético Madrid to Liverpool, and in the 2008/09 summer, the Premier League continued it’s early dominance on this list, with Manchester City’s €43m purchase of Robinho the most expensive transfer.
Next up is the first La Liga signing on the list: Cristiano Ronaldo’s huge €94m (world transfer record at the time) move from Manchester United to Real Madrid was the record signing of the 2009/10 summer. In the 2010/11 summer window, it was David Villa trading Valencia for Barcelona in a €40m move. In both the 2011/12 and the 2012/13 summer, PSG set the record transfer. In 2012, it was them signing Javier Pastore for €42m from Roma, and in 2013 it was the Parisians signing of Thiago Silva from AC Milan for €42m. The most expensive deal in the 2013/14 summer was Real Madrid signing Gareth Bale from Tottenham for €101m, and in the 2014/15 summer it was Barcelona signing Liverpool’s Luis Suárez for €81.7m.
In the summer of the 2015/16 season, it was Man City bringing Kevin De Bruyne back to the Premier League from Wolfsburg for €76m. The following summer at the commencing of the 2016/17 season, the record deal was Paul Pogba’s €105m move from Juventus to Man United. In the 2017/18 summer the most expensive deal remains the world record fee to this day in Neymar’s €222m move from Barcelona to PSG. in 2018/19 PSG were at it again, holding the record for Kylian Mbappé’s €180m permanent transfer from Monaco. In the summer of the 2019/20 season, João Felix’s €127.2m move from Benfica to Atlético held the record.
As we move into the latest decade, the biggest deal in the 2020/21 summer was midfielder Arthur moving from Barcelona to Juventus for €80.6m. In the summer of the 2021/22 season Man City’s €117.5m acquisition of Jack Grealish from Aston Villa held the record as the Premier League began to re-assert its dominance on the transfer market. In the 2022/23 summer window the record was Man United’s €95m signing of Antony from Ajax, and in the 2023/24 window it was Arsenal’s club record €116.6m signing of Declan Rice from West Ham. Forward Julian Alvarez’s €75m transfer from Man City to Atlético was the most expensive deal last summer.
