Premier League clubs are lining up expensive deals this summer as Declan Rice and Josko Gvardiol feature among the players expected to move.
As transfer records look set to fall, BBC Sport has looked at some of the most expensive players ever by position, league and nationality.
For clarity’s sake, we are using initial fees, excluding add-ons where possible.
Goalkeepers
Most of the priciest goalkeepers have gone to Premier League teams, led by Chelsea’s £71m outlay on Athletic Bilbao’s Kepa Arrizabalaga in 2018.
Alisson’s £66.8m move to Liverpool from Roma the same summer ranks second, followed by Manchester City’s 2017 signing of Benfica’s Ederson for £35m.
That Ederson move ended Gianluigi Buffon’s 16-year reign as the world’s most expensive keeper – following his £32.6m move in 2001 from Parma to Juventus.
Thibaut Courtois’ switch from Chelsea to Real Madrid also puts him in the top five, with the fee in that deal having reportedly been worth up to £35m.
Defenders
The top three here were all Premier League signings from other English clubs, two involving Leicester. The Foxes’ £80m sale of Harry Maguire to Manchester United in 2019 remains the world record.
Virgil van Dijk’s £75m move from Southampton to Liverpool sits second, with Wesley Fofana’s £70m journey from the King Power to Chelsea last year in third on the list.
Bayern Munich’s signings of Lucas Hernandez from Atletico Madrid (£68m in 2019) and Matthijs de Ligt from Juventus (£65.6m in 2022) are next.
If Croatia’s Gvardiol makes an £86m move from RB Leipzig to Manchester City, as reported, then he will top this list.
Midfielders
Enzo Fernandez became the most expensive midfielder ever with his British record £107m move from Benfica to Chelsea on 1 February.
Philippe Coutinho’s 2018 switch from Liverpool to Barcelona was for an initial £105m, while Jack Grealish cost Manchester City £100m from Aston Villa in 2021.
If Arsenal sign West Ham’s Rice for £105m, he will go in at joint second.
Completing the top five are Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United (£89m) in 2016 and Jude Bellingham’s move this summer from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid for £88.5m.
Forwards
The most expensive two footballers both joined Paris St-Germain in the same summer. PSG spent £200m on Barcelona’s Neymar in 2017 and soon after signed Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe, on an initial loan, in a £165.7m deal.
Atletico Madrid’s £113m move for Benfica forward Joao Felix in 2019 is third in all positions, when you exclude potential add-ons for Coutinho and Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele.
Next among forwards is the £107m Barcelona paid Atletico for Antoine Griezmann, also in 2019, and then Romelu Lukaku’s £97.5m move from Inter Milan to Chelsea in 2021.
Belgium’s Lukaku holds a record of his own with a total career transfer fee of £294.5m, having joined Chelsea twice, Everton, Manchester United and Inter.
La Liga
Spanish clubs have made four of the top 10 most expensive signings of all time, although perhaps surprisingly none involved Real Madrid.
Atletico’s move for Felix is number one, with Barcelona’s deals for Griezmann, Coutinho and Dembele – an initial £97m from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 – also featuring.
Real’s biggest signing remains the initial £89m they paid Chelsea for Eden Hazard in 2019. That fee reportedly could have reached £150m, but it is unlikely many of the add-on criteria were met.
Ligue 1
Paris St-Germain have the top two most expensive signings ever – with Neymar and Mbappe – and then nobody else in the top 50.
Edinson Cavani is next with his 2013 move from Napoli to PSG for £55m.
Monaco, who paid a reported £50m for Atletico Madrid’s Radamel Falcao in 2013, are the only other French team to ever spend more than £30m on a player.
Premier League
Chelsea’s £107m move for Fernandez is the British record, followed by Manchester City’s £100m addition of Grealish.
Chelsea also rank third with their £97.5m signing of Lukaku, with Manchester United’s signings of Pogba (£89m), Ajax winger Antony (£82m), Maguire (£80m) and Everton striker Lukaku (£75m) next, with Liverpool’s Van Dijk also costing £75m.
Serie A
The Italian league’s record signing was for a 33-year-old, with Juventus paying £99.2m in 2018 for Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
Next was Juve’s £75.3m signing of Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain in 2016 and then Inter’s £74m move for Lukaku from Manchester United in 2019 (which ranks as only Lukaku’s third biggest move).
Juve are next, too, with Matthijs de Ligt costing £67.5m from Ajax in 2019.
Bundesliga
As would be expected, Bayern Munich are responsible for the majority of Germany’s biggest signings.
The record remains Lucas Hernandez’s £68m move from Atletico Madrid in 2019, followed by last year’s £65.6m signing of De Ligt from Juventus.
Bayern paid an initial £44.7m for Manchester City winger Leroy Sane in 2020 which is third on the list. By contrast, that would not make the top 50 Premier League signings.
Other leagues
The biggest signing ever by a team outside of Europe’s top five leagues was Shanghai SIPG’s £60m signing of Chelsea midfielder Oscar in 2017.
Most of the biggest signings by non-European clubs were made in China between 2016 and 2019.
However, Saudi Arabian clubs could start to threaten that, with Al-Hilal paying £47m for Wolves captain Ruben Neves this summer.
Most expensive British signings
Grealish is the most expensive British footballer ever, although he could be overtaken by Rice any day now.
England team-mate Bellingham is second, followed by Wales winger Gareth Bale who made an £85m move from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013.
Maguire, the £80m man, is followed by Jadon Sancho who moved in 2021 from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United. Mason Mount will be next when his £55m move from Chelsea to United is finalised.
Kieran Tierney is the most expensive Scot ever, joining Arsenal from Celtic for £25m in 2019. Northern Ireland’s priciest player remains Jamal Lewis, who made a £15m switch from Norwich to Newcastle in 2020.
How about other countries?
Eight of the record signings from the top 10 countries in Fifa’s world rankings have already been mentioned so far.
Argentina’s is Fernandez, France’s is Mbappe, Brazil’s is Neymar, England’s is Grealish and Belgium’s is Lukaku.
Van Dijk leads the way for Dutch players, with Ronaldo top for Portugal and Kepa the most expensive Spaniard.
Croatia’s highest-price player remains Luka Modric, following his £30m move from Tottenham to Real Madrid 11 years ago – although Gvardiol will smash that if he joins Champions League winners City this summer.
Sandro Tonali has become the most expensive Italian after signing for Newcastle for a reported £55m from AC Milan, beating the £50m Chelsea paid for Jorginho from Napoli in 2018.
