Football like most sports is business. If you are one of those who still think sports is a pastime or an engagement for the never-do-wells, perhaps you need to take more than a cursory look at the player transfer.
As Argentine Angel Di Maria switches from Madrid to Manchester in a record British transfer of £59.7m topping the £50m Chelsea forked out for Fernando Torres in 2011. The signing of Angel Di Maria by Manchester United from Real Madrid took British clubs spending this season to over £700m for the first time.
Using the British football scene as our case study, let us critically examine the history of player transfer since 1893. Scot ‘Darlin’ Willie Groves was the first £100 player, transferring from West Brom to Aston Villa in 1893. While the sums may change, some of the transfer tactics do not, with Villa fined £25 over allegations of tapping up players. A former Celtic and Hibernian star, Groves also had a key role in helping West Brom win the FA Cup a year before his move, and landed the league title with Villa in 1894. But despite the transfer fee – which equates to about £11,000 in today’s money when inflation is taken into account – he died a pauper. Groves retired from the game after developing tuberculosis and died in Edinburgh aged 39, 15 years after his landmark transfer. The mark was soon passed, with Alf Common becoming the first footballer to move for a £1,000 fee. Common joined Middleborough from local rivals Sunderland in 1905, and the forward helped his side stave off relegation to Division Two.
Six Figure Strikers
Transfer fees grew steadily throughout the 20th century but advanced significantly in the 1960s and 1970s as sides competed for trophies in Europe. Denis Law attracted the first six-figure fee from a British club when he returned to England from Italian club Torino, with Manchester United paying £115,000. He scored on his debut against West Brom in 1962 and racked up 237 goals in total with the Old Trafford outfit.
The transfer record was broken twice by one man – Allan Clarke went for £150,000 in a 1968 move from Fulham to Leicester, and then £165,000 the following year when transferring to Leeds United. Another trophy winner, England 1966 World Cup winner Martin Peters, joined Tottenham from London rivals West Ham for £200,000 in 1970.
£1M Men
The emergence of £1m players happened before the advent of 24-hours sports channel or the social media. Trevor Francis signed for Nottingham Forest from Birmingham City in 1979. It doubled the amount received by Liverpool when Kevin Keegan was sold to Hamburg two years earlier. Forest lifted the European Cup two years running. More seven-figure transfers followed later in the year, with Steve Daley leaving Wolves for Manchester City while his former side bought Andy Gray from Villa.
Premier League Era
The advent of the Premier League with increased television revenue, saw a new era of big spenders. Striker Andy Cole dramatically joined Manchester United from Newcastle in January 1995 in a £7m cash-plus-player deal that saw Keith Gillespie head in the opposite direction. Magpies boss Kevin Keegan came in for criticism from fans over the departure of a man who had scored 55 goals in 77 league games, and United snatched the league title from Newcastle in 1996. But there were delirious scenes on Tyneside when Keegan signed Old Trafford target Alan Shearer from Blackburn for £15m.
Sir Alex Ferguson hen coach of Manchester United upped the ante when buying England defender Rio Ferdinand for £29.1m from Leeds, having shelled out £28.1m the previous year to Lazio for Argentine captain Juan Sebastian Veron. Ferdinand clearly had the X Factor – his £18.5m move from West Ham to Leeds in November 2000 had made him the world’s costliest defender – and he won six league titles, two League Cups, and a Champions League in his 12-year Manchester stint.
The £30m mark was broken by Chelsea for Andriy Shevchenko as Russian owner Roman Abramovich wielded his financial muscle. The Blues set another new record in January 2011, spending £50m to recruit Spanish striker Fernando Torres from Liverpool. It was a move that allowed the Anfield club to bring in new recruits – and they paid out £36m for Newcastle’s Andy Carroll and £22.7m for Uruguay striker Luis Suarez.
Biggest Transfer Fees Paid By A British Club
- Angel Di Maria, £59.7m Real Madrid to Manchester United, 2014
- Fernando Torres, £50m Liverpool to Chelsea, 2011
- Mesut Ozil, £42.4m Real Madrid to Arsenal, 2013
- Sergio Aguero, £38m Atletico Madrid to Manchester City, 2011
- Juan Mata, £37.1m Chelsea to Manchester United, 2014
- Andy Carroll, £35mNewcastle to Liverpool, 2011
- Alexis Sanchez, £35m Barcelona to Arsenal, 2014
World Mark
In 1968, Pietro Anastasi became the first £500k player when Juventus purchased him from Varese, which was followed seven years later with Giuseppe Savoldi becoming the first million pound player when he transferred from Bologna to Napoli. The only player to twice be transferred for world record fees is Diego Maradona. His transfers from Boca Juniors to Barcelona for £3m, and then to Napoli for £5m, both broke the record in 1982 and 1984 respectively.In the space of 61 days in 1992, three transfers broke the record, all by Italian clubs: Jean-Pierre Papin transferred from Marseille to A.C. Milan, becoming the first ever £10m player. Almost immediately, rivals Juventus topped that with the signing of Gianluca Vialli for a fee of £12m from Sampdoria. Milan then completed the signing of Gianluigi Lentini for a fee of £13m which stood as the record for three years.
The players transfer market is dominated by the two Spanish giants- Real Madrid and Barcelona. Real as justified its number position as the most successful football club in the world with its mammoth sum signings. The two most expensive footballers in the world are playing for Real Madrid.
20 Most Expensive Footballers
- Gareth Bale (Wales)Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid €91, 2013
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Portgal) Manchester United to Real Madrid €94.4, 2009
- Luis Suárez (Uruguay) Liverpool to Barcelona €81, 2014
- James Rodríguez (Colombia) AS Monaco to Real Madrid €79.5, 2014
- Ángel Di María (Argentina) Real Madrid to Manchester United €75, 2014
- Zinedine Zidane (France) Juventus to Real Madrid €75, 2001
- Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden) Inter to Barcelona €69, 2009
- Kaká (Brazil) Milan to Real Madrid €65, 2009
- Edinson Cavani (Uruguay) Napoli to Paris Saint-Germain €64, 2013
- David Luiz (Brazil) Chelsea to Paris Saint-Germain €62.6, 2014
- Luís Figo (Portugal) Barcelona to Real Madrid €62, 2000
- Radamel Falcao (Colombia) Atlético Madrid to AS Monaco €60, 2013
- Fernando Torres (Spain) Liverpool Chelsea €58, 2011
- Hernán Crespo (Argentina)Parma to Lazio €56.5, 2000
- Carlos Tevez (Argentina) Manchester United to Manchester City €53, 2009
- Mesut Özil (Germany) Real Madrid to Arsenal €50, 2013
- Rui Costa (Portugal) Fiorentina to Milan €49.7, 2001
- Gaizka Mendieta (Spain) Valencia to Lazio €48, 2001
- Ronaldo (Brazil) Inter to Real Madrid €45, 2002
- Gianluigi Buffon (Italy): Parma to Juventus €45, 2001
