Most Expensive Football Players

Top 10 most expensive football transfers :Football Players — Real Madrid look to have blown the current transfer record for a footballer out of the water after having an £80m bid for Cristiano Ronaldo accepted by Man United. We look back at the ten mega-deals the Portuguese wizard's apparent move to Spain will put in the shadows. More images after the break...

1. Kaka £59m - from AC Milan to Real Madrid

Until Real came in for Ronaldo, their reported £59m bid for Kaka looked like it was going to be the new world record benchmark for a transfer fee. Kaka said he was moving 'for AC Milan'. Course he is. 

Following the controversial arrival of Luis Figo in the Spanish capital a year before, Real president Florentino Perez continued his now infamous Galacticos project with the capture of the then FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane from Italian giants Juventus for a fee that stood as the world record until Kaka's deal.

2. Zinedine Zidane£46.7million - from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2001

3. Luis Figo £37million - from Barca to Real in 2000

Perez was elected Real president in the summer of 2000 on the back of his promise to do the unthinkable and bring the star player from arch-rivals Barcelona to the Bernabeu. Upon appointment he was true to his word, breaking the world transfer record by signing Luis Figo for £37million.

 

4. Hernan Crespo £35.7million - from Parma to Lazio in 2000

In the summer of 2000 Sven-Goran Eriksson's Lazio were Serie A champions and flush with cash following the sale of Christian Vieri to Inter Milan a year before for a then world-record fee. They spent £35.7million of their money on Parma's Hernan Crespo, who finished top scorer in the league in his first season in Rome but was unable to help the club defend their Scudetto and also left for Inter in 2002.

 

 

5. Robinho £32.5million - Real Madrid to Manchester City in 2008

Having been taken over by the super-rich Abu Dhabi investment group on the final day of the 2008 summer transfer window, the new owners of Manchester City made a signal of their intent by beating Chelsea to the signing of unsettled Brazilian star Robinho from Real Madrid in a Premier League record deal worth £32.5million