Been broken 18 times since 1982 

From Diego Maradona to Neymar - Every transfer record broken since the 1980's

©TM/IMAGO

Back in July 1982, shockwaves were sent through football, as Barcelona splashed out a world-record fee to bring the talented 21-year-old Argentinian Diego Maradona to the Camp Nou. The Catalan club paid Argentinos Juniors €7.3m to acquire the attackers services. At the time, fans and journalists alike were flabbergasted by such a fee. Maradona’s time at Barca ended two years later, after a brawl broke out in the Copa Del rey final against Athletic Club, with the Argentine at the epicentre. He did however win three trophies with Barcelona, and was even applauded by the Real Madrid crowd after scoring a superb solo goal in El Clásico.

Now, 42 years on, and the money in football has continued to snowball, with the world-record transfer fee being broken a further 17 times since Maradona’s move to Spain. But which players have held the envious mantle of being the world’s most expensive ever player since then? Don’t worry, at Transfermarkt we have you covered. Some star names have held that throne, whilst some players that were the world-record transfer failed to live up to expectation.

Every player to break the transfer record since the 1980’s

The next player to break Maradona’s record was Italian Roberto Donadoni in 1986, when he moved from Atalanta to AC Milan for €8m. One year later Belgian Enzo Scifo took the throne, moving from Anderlecht to Inter Milan for €8.65m. In 1988, Hungarian Lajos Détári signed for Olympiacos for €8.7m from Frankfurt to take the mantle. Two years later, legendary Italian Roberto Baggio broke the record when he moved from Fiorentina to Juventus for €12.9m. That record stood for another two years before fellow Italian Gianluca Vialli went from Sampdoria to Juventus for €16.5m in 1992.

Four years later, the first Premier League signing makes the list – Alan Shearer traded Blackburn for Newcastle in 1996 for a world-record €18m. In 1997, Brazilian Sonny Anderson moved from Monaco to Barcelona for €26.25m, before in the same year, the great Brazilian Ronaldo went from Barca to Inter Milan for €26.5m. A year later, Real Betis paid €30m for São Paulo attacker Denilson. In 1999, Inter broke the record again when they splashed out €46.45m on Christian Vieri from Lazio.

Inter Milan kept up their theme of paying big money for strikers in 2000, when they signed Argentinian Hernán Crespo from Lazio for €56.81m. That same year, Luis Figo did the unthinkable and went from Barcelona to Real Madrid for a world-record €60m. In 2001, Zinédine Zidane went from Juventus to Real Madrid for €77.5m. That record stood for eight years, before Cristiano Ronaldo made the move from Manchester United to Real Madrid for €94m in 2009.

The ‘Galacticos’ dominance continued in 2013, when Madrid paid Tottenham €101m for Welsh winger Gareth Bale – the first ever signing to break the €100m barrier. In 2016, just the second Premier League signing made the list when Man United paid Juventus €105m for midfielder Paul Pogba, who had previously come through at youth level for the Red Devils. A year later in 2017, PSG actviated Neymar’s release clause at Barcelona of €222m, more than doubling the previous record. That Neymar deal still stands today as the world-record transfer, and it seems unlikely anything will beat it anytime soon.