The Evolution of Transfer Fees

On Tuesday 9th August 2016, Paul Pogba became the world's most expensive footballer of all time, costing Manchester United a reported £89million. That broke a 16 year record that was held by Real Madrid from their transfers of Luis Figo, £37million, Zinedine Zidane, £46.6million, Kaka, £56million, Cristiano Ronaldo, £80million, and most recently Gareth Bale, £86million. The money involved in football in the modern era is astonishing and is growing every year, with the new season in the Premier League recording an £8billion television deal. This gives all the teams more money to spend and the more money they can spend on transfers. I take a look at the way the game has change since the start of the most famous sport in the world.

Football didn't become a profession until 1885 when the FA became footballs start of the game we all love. However, it took eight years for the first transfer of £100 to be recorded when Willie Groves went from West Brom to midlands rivals Aston Villa. This was just the start. The fees did not evolve as they do in the modern day as it took eleven years to be broken, and twelve years until the transfer record would reach £1,000 when Alf Common moved from Sunderland to Middlesbrough. The British contingency stayed for many years as the world record was held by either an English or Scottish player for the first 47 years of the professional game.

Willie Groves

The first non-Brit to hold the world record was Argentinian Bernabé Ferreyra, who would be the first of eight South Americans to hold the record to date, when in 1932 he commanded a fee of £23,000, more than doubling the previous record, as he moved from Tigre to River Plate. That record went on to last an impressive 17 years before the Brits took over again, but only for three years.

Bernabé Ferreyra

The dominance of Spanish and Italian clubs started to prevail as they were to hold the record for 44 years. Firstly, with the first and only Swede, Hans Jeppson went from Atalanta to Napoli for £52,000. But the first person to cross continents with a transfer was Juan Schiaffino, when he left his native Uruaguay to place for A.C Milan. But the records would not stay for very long as continuous transfers occurred and in 1961, the first £100,000 player was announced. It was the original Luis Suarez who became the record holder as Inter Milan smashed the record to take the Spaniard away from Catalonia. The world of football had changed and in the next 35 years the record was broken a further 14 times by Spanish and Italian clubs. It is crazy to think Johan Cruyff only cost Barcelona £922,000 to take him away from Ajax back in 1973 and he was possibly in the top 5 players of all time.

Juan Schiaffino

The big one was the first £1million player. The role of Europe's elite was finacilly superior to the rest of the world and the likes of Barcelona, Inter, Napoli and A.C Milan were serious powerhouses and continued to be into the 90's and it was Napoli who broke the record of over the million when they signed Giuseppe Savoldi for £1,200,000 from Bologna. These names are fairly unknown to the modern day football fan, including myself, but more recent record breakers will be more household names. Most notably, the infamous shipping of Diego Maradona, who broke the world record twice, one of only three players to do so, with David Jack, 1920 and 1928, and Brazilian Ronaldo, 1996 and 1997, however only the little Argentine is the only player to break it twice in a row. The great did not even peak by that time as it was 1986 when he, literally, single-handedly, hey English fans, won the Mexico world cup. Costing Barcelona only £3million and Napoli £5million, however back then, maybe it didn't sound so crazy. Ruud Gullit and the great hair of Roberto Baggio followed before the first £10million player in 1992.

Diego Maradona

Jean-Pierre Papin of France became the first Frenchman to hold the title when he moved from Marsielle to A.C Milan in 1992 for a fee of £10million. So it took 90 years for a fee to reach £1million and only 17 years after that, the fee had multiplied by ten. The madness of finances in football in the modern day continued to show as the record was broken on a further two occasions in the same year with Italian duo Gianluca Vialli and Gianluigi Lentini held price-tags of £12million and £13million respectively. The reign of Spain and Italy came to an end when Alan Shearer went from Blackburn to school-boy club Newcastle for £15million and went on to be the Premier League's all time top goalscorer, a record that still stands. The record would only last a year, as Ronaldo would break it for the second time.

Alan Shearer

The Galactico period began in 2000 as the turn of the century saw Real Madrid buy their success. The club had huge success in the 50's when between 1956 to 1960 then won the European cup every time, and winning it 5 times in a row. But they first broke the record in 2000 with the signing of Luis Figo that broke the football world, not just for the fee of £37,000,000 but also for the fact it was from fierce rivals Barcelona. They became the first club since 1925 to break their own record when they signed Zinedne Zidane for £46,600,000 in 2001, £9,600,000 more than their previous record just one year earlier. The club would not give up there as they showed their financial prowess as they broke the record a further three times to sign Kaka for £56,000,000, the first player to cost £50,000,000 or more in 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo shortly after for £80,000,000 and then Gareth Bale for £86,000,000. These records were spiralling and the club have changed the game the most out of any other with the amount of money they have thrown into transfers.

Luis Figo

Paul Pogba signing for Manchester United made people think they could be about to see the first £100,000,000 player but it seems to only be £89,000,000. He is not even considered the best player in the world and possibly not even in the top 5 but his age and potential maybe justifies the hefty fee. But time will tell if that happens, the situation was the same and still is for Gareth Bale. But how long will it be before we really do see the first £100million player and who will it be? It could be someone we don't know yet or could it be Neymar in a few years or maybe Hazard, it will be a huge milestone for the sport when the day finally comes.

Paul Pogba