They are skilled, they’re strong and they cost an arm and a leg to purchase.
That’s right, we’re talking about the many talented soccer players that grace our screens every season and help create the magnificent soccer culture that we have all come to love and know so dearly.
We’ve decided to take a good hard look at the most expensive soccer players the world has ever seen, from those that broke transfer records to the biggest, most expensive players that we know of today.
A Dime A Dozen
If we had to take a look at who the world’s most expensive soccer players are, we’d probably only get to look at the players that have been purchased in more recent years, which makes sense considering the effects of inflation.
This basically refers to the fact that something that we would have considered to be very expensive in those times, will now be considered pocket change to many.
Instead, let’s first take a look at the most expensive players by observing which players broke world transfer records.
World Transfer Records
In 1893 Willie Groves became known as the world’s most expensive player when he was the first to be transferred for more than £100, which today would barely get you into one of the high stakes games like blackjack has on offer.
However, if we then jump ahead to 1928, we can see that Jack certainly earned a seat amongst the world’s most expensive players, breaking the four-figure barrier in transfers and costing what was considered a whopping amount of £10,890.
Jack, Diego Maradona and Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima were possibly the world’s most expensive players of all time, because they are the only 3 players to have ever broken the world transfer record more than once. Now let’s take a look at the costly players that are taking over the world of soccer today.
World’s Most Expensive Players Today
There is an incredibly large number of talented players in the world of professional soccer, and while some fans may favour certain players over others, it is their transfer value that will determine whether they are a good addition to your team or not.
Here are today’s 20 players that, according to the CIES Football Observatory algorithm, have the highest transfer value:
- Neymar Jr (Barcelona) – €246.8
- Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – €170.5
- Paul Pogba (Man Utd) – €155.3
- Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) – €150.4
- Luiz Suarez (Barcelona) – €145.2
- Harry Kane (Tottenham) – €139.2
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – €126.5
- Paulo Dybala (Juventus) – €113.8
- Dele Alli (Tottenham) – €110.5
- Eden Hazard (Chelsea) – €101.5
- Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus) – €98
- Anthony Martial (Man Utd) – €92.5
- Raheem Sterling (Man City) – €85.5
- Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) – €84
- Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (Atletico Madrid) – €83
- Sergio Aguero (Man City) – €79.7
- Riyad Mahrez (Leicester) – €78.1
- Mauro Icardi (Internazionale) – €77.7
- Kevin de Bruyne (Man City) – €76.7
- Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) – €74.5
There’s a lot to take from the above list, such as the fact that Eden Hazard actually sits below Harry Kane and Dele Alli, while Sanchez doesn’t appear to be as valuable as Mahrez and Ousmane Dembele stands as the most expensive teenager.
Whatever you take from it, one thing is for sure – these are some seriously valuable soccer players both on paper and on the field.