Top 50 most expensive transfers ever - but how many were a success?

It's an often-discussed argument that big deals often don't work out - but how true is that?

Every football fan wants their team to spend big, to open that chequebook, and to have the ball-juggling unveiling in front of the waiting media.

But how often do these big-budget deals actually work out?

FootballTransfers takes a look.

RULES

We’ve split these deals into three:

HIT = 🟢 | UNDECIDED = 🟠 | MISS = 🔴

Hits are unequivocal successes, undecided means that time will decide, and miss means these deals simply did not play out as planned.

Join us - it’s quite the list.

1. Neymar, Barcelona to PSG - €222m (2017) 🔴

The most expensive transfer of all time, and it might remain the most expensive transfer ever, Neymar produced moments of unbridled genius as one of the most gifted players of the 21st century.

But too often it happened when it didn’t really matter; his best and most memorable club performance ironically came against PSG in the famous 6-1 Champions League comeback. Available for less than half the season most of the time, PSG didn’t really move in the right direction until he left France.

2. Kylian Mbappe, Monaco to PSG - €180m (2018) 🔴

On the pitch a brilliant influence, but has he been worth the hassle? PSG are proving now that they are an infinitely better team without one of the world’s best players. Like Neymar, they got better when he moved out.

And the ongoing legal woes he is bringing - suing the club for breach of contract - means that this full sorry deal may end up costing PSG way more than the gigantic fee they paid for him.

3. Philippe Coutinho, Liverpool to Barcelona - €135m (2018) 🔴

Liverpool could hear the coins rattling around in Barcelona’s pockets after the Neymar deal and thus were able to extract a huge fee for Coutinho who, it has to be said, had been in blistering form for the Reds under Jurgen Klopp.

But he simply could not feature in the same team as Messi, and the little genius just wasn’t done yet at that point. Coutinho should probably have known that this was a battle he just wasn’t going to win, and he never ever came close.

= Ousmane Dembele, Dortmund to Barcelona - €135m (2017) 🔴

The fact that Dembele is the hot favourite for the Ballon d’Or this year with PSG means that Barcelona were not wrong to complete this trade - though they maybe were a little early, and probably spent far too much.

PSG are currently reaping the benefits of Dembele truly discovering the potential of the player he could be alongside Messi, but the results were, at best, blindingly frustrating for the Spanish giants, and must be even more so now.

5. Joao Felix, Benfica to Atletico Madrid - €127.2m (2019) 🔴

In fairness to Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid, they’re not the only club that has been deceived by Felix’s limitless potential, and incapable of converting that into tangible success.

Others have tried, most recently Chelsea and Milan, but if there is to be a player in the mercurial, skilful playmaker, we simply haven’t seen it since his Benfica days. And the fee - wow. Simply way too much for one way too young.

6. Enzo Fernandez, Benfica to Chelsea - €121m (2023) 🟠

This one is more of a slow burner; Fernandez was a World Cup winner who could not find his place in the Chelsea side, stuck between attacking #10 and a holding #6 but he has shown admirable perseverance in turning things around.

He is now a key part of Enzo Maresca’s squad and while the fee Benfica extracted - the masters of the market at it again - was too expensive, Fernandez has the potential to be a pivotal part of Chelsea’s side for years to come.

7. Antoine Griezmann, Atletico Madrid to Barcelona - €120m (2019) 🔴

Not only did Barcelona foolishly attempt to shoehorn Coutinho into a side that still contained Messi, they did it with Griezmann too, arguably ruining brilliant years for one of the modern game’s most special talents.

A big-game player at both club and international level, he showed precisely none of that for Barca, working extremely hard for the team but being kept from doing what he is truly good at.

8. Florian Wirtz, Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool - €117.5m (2025) 🟠

On the face of it this one looks like it could be a shrewd move. But one glance at the deals around it on this list should make sure we reserve judgement.

= Jack Grealish, Aston Villa to Man City - €117.5m (2021) 🔴

Another example of right player, at the right time, to the wrong club. Grealish had enjoyed a stellar season at Aston Villa and deserved a platform for his abilities, but as we’ve since discovered, Pep Guardiola just didn’t want him to be the free spirit he so desperately wanted to be.

As a result we’ve had one season of promise surrounded by three of real disappointment and frustration, that Grealish’s peak years were spent either passing backwards, or sitting on the bench.

10. Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid to Juventus- €117m (2018) 🔴

Another transfer where it’s vital to separate the on-pitch performances to the overall picture of what happened to Juventus as a result of this deal.

On the pitch, Ronaldo delivered the goals and the media fawning but he also delivered a trio of hugely disappointing Champions League exits to Lyon, Ajax and Porto.

And the financial ramifications of paying CR7 such an exorbitant sum have set Juventus on completely the wrong path; from winning Serie A so regularly the competition itself was in jeopardy, to struggling to compete for the top four.

11. Declan Rice, West Ham to Arsenal - €116.6m (2023) 🟢

Of all the major deals to happen of late, arguably the most obviously successful was Arsenal’s capture of Declan Rice. The fee was too much, but the impact has been obvious.

From the stunning pair of free-kicks which put Real Madrid out of the Champions League to the main point that it feels like he’s always been there. He’s not made Arsenal winners yet, but they are unquestionably a better team with him in their midfield.

12. Moises Caicedo, Brighton to Chelsea - €116m (2023) 🟠

Caicedo, like Fernandez, has increased in importance and in estimation in the last 12 months at Chelsea, filling in wherever needed and destroying the opposition in all of them.

It wasn’t an immediate hit and it remains a huge amount of money for a player who had been in Ecuador just a few years before, but despite that fee he is establishing every day that he could potentially do for Chelsea what N’Golo Kante did before him, and dominate a midfield towards the title.

13. Eden Hazard, Chelsea to Real Madrid - €115m (2019) 🔴

Pound-for-pound, arguably the worst transfer of all time. The deal had virtually no redeeming elements; €115m for a winger who had one year left on his deal and who was wildly inconsistent.

It could be deemed unfair to claim that he gave up when he arrived at Real Madrid, but there’s quite a persuasive argument to say that, overweight and barely training, is exactly what he did.

14. Romelu Lukaku, Inter to Chelsea - €113m (2021) 🔴

A deal that seemed completely logical but proved to be anything but. Lukaku had ripped apart Serie A in guiding Inter to the title but despite scoring versus Arsenal early on faded very quickly from sight.

He was soon back in Italy trying to claim that he’d never wanted to leave, and from that point onwards it was over. Lukaku’s career is a strange one - when expectation is lower - Inter, Everton, Napoli - he excels. But in the bigger deals he has been unable to live up to his billing.

= Jude Bellingham, Dortmund to Real Madrid - €113m (2023) 🟠

An inspiring first six months in Madrid playing as an auxiliary centre-forward has been replaced by 18 months of relative frustration as he tries to find his place in a team that has added another attacker in and around where he wants to be.

And it’s been to the detriment of his overall performances. Bellingham is still very young and very talented but this is a testing time for him and a Club World Cup mauling versus PSG has only enhanced his feeling that this isn’t quite working out at the moment.

16. Paul Pogba, Juventus to Man Utd - €105m (2016) 🟠

On reflection, Pogba’s time at Man Utd had moments of real brilliance and seems quite a long way away from the scandal and attempt at rehabilitation that is happening now.

A stunning passer and a central midfielder capable of utterly controlling matches, the problem was that he just didn’t do it often enough.

But Pogba’s form in 17-18 and 18-19 is light years ahead of anything United have in their current midfield and would do anything to have the prime version of him back now.

17. Gareth Bale, Tottenham to Real Madrid - €101m (2013) 🟢

A player who became so big-time at Real Madrid he pissed off Ronaldo for stealing his thunder, spent the last 18 months of his contract either at Spurs or on the golf course.

And he also scored one of the great Copa del Rey final goals and the unquestionable greatest Champion League final goal of all time while netting two in the biggest game of all. By every metric, a perfect Galactico transfer.

18. Harry Kane, Tottenham to Bayern - €95m (2023) 🟢

He hasn’t been able to deliver another Champions League for the German giants yet, but Kane has done pretty much everything a Bayern centre-forward can ask of them.

62 league goals in two seasons, the second of which delivered a Bundesliga title, and with an entire transfer market looking for a centre-forward, Bayern seem pretty content with the fee paid for the return received.

= Randal Kolo Muani, Eintracht Frankfurt to PSG - €95m (2023) 🔴

The fact that Muani is still near the top of most striker lists this summer for teams in the hunt is testament to his talent, but this move was simply never going to work out for a coach like Luis Enrique.

He just doesn’t fit the coaches’ tactics and pressing style - at all - and so it wasn’t his fault that this deal didn’t succeed. But for that amount of expenditure, boy, did it fail.

= Antony, Ajax to Man Utd - €95m (2022) 🔴

A catastrophically overpriced deal for a winger with skill but one not cut out for the Premier League, and his manager, Erik Ten Hag, should have known that.

His entire demeanour put United fans on notice and put opposition fans into meme mode as he pirouetted his way to one goal and one assist in the Premier League in 23-24. The fact he performed so well on loan at Betis in the second half of last season arguably showed he had talent, but at a ceiling.

21. Cristiano Ronaldo, Man Utd to Real Madrid - €94m (2009) 🟢

One of the most obvious transfers ever at the time, Ronaldo waited a year longer than he wanted to seal the deal but once he arrived in Madrid he became part of one of the most intense player rivalries in history with Lionel Messi.

The fee looks cheap at the cost now but was still a big risk as part of Florentino Perez’s Galacticos 2.0. But Ronaldo paid him back so many times over with his relentless goalscoring and ascendency to a multiple-time Ballon d’Or winner.

22. Josko Gvardiol, RB Leipzig to Man City - €90m (2023) 🟢

City may have had their issues defensively in the last season but it’s not a result of the performances of Gvardiol, who spent most of his time playing so well out of position at full-back that he made it his permanent role.

Not only did he excel on the left, he became an effective attacking weapon and surprisingly skilled finisher in one of City’s few transfers of late that they got absolutely correct. And he’s still only 23.

= Neymar, PSG to Al-Hilal - €90m (2023) 🔴

It could well be argued that this, and not Eden Hazard to Real Madrid, is the worst transfer ever, but it’s a close-run thing. Both were unfit, hardly played and spent most of their time doing other things.

But Neymar moved ‘taking the piss’ to a whole other level, partying with his friends in Brazil and only taking time out to tear his cruciate ligament. A biblical waste of time and money for a project that, in all fairness, is not short of funds.

= Gonzalo Higuain, Napoli to Juventus - €90m (2016) 🟠

After an unbelievable goalscoring season for Napoli, an already-dominant Juventus spent a massive fee on a world-class finisher, and he almost delivered them the Champions League that they seek, losing in the final.

But his drop-off afterwards was with pace - he spent his third season on loan at Milan and Chelsea, two deals which delivered little in the way of goals, and with Ronaldo arriving his fee really didn’t seem as worth it as it had once been.

25. Harry Maguire, Leicester to Man Utd - €87m (2019) 🔴

Perhaps the most surprising thing of all around Harry Maguire is the fact he is still at Manchester United after all this time, but it’s not because anyone particularly wants him around.

If there had been any bidder willing to give United anywhere remotely close to what they spent on him then he would have left already, and it’s a shame because Maguire was merely the player at United that everyone knew him to be - solid, uncompromising, but limited.

26. Frenkie de Jong, Ajax to Barcelona - €86m (2019) 🟠

Like Maguire, De Jong is another player who has stayed in the same place for a long time, but mainly because his contract was so valuable he would have been nuts to try and leave.

He will probably leave Barca next summer and he has had to deal with a tumultuous arrival before transforming into a different type of player that most expected him to be. It’s not been a complete success, but the good moments have been largely worth the outlay.

27. Matthijs de Ligt, Ajax to Juventus - €85.5m (2019) 🔴

Now at Manchester United, the myth of De Ligt is one that keeps going; in fact it’s hard to argue that De Ligt’s best season was seven years ago now, and he’s struggled to fit any kind of system since.

Juventus were the first to have a go, then Bayern, and now United. It’s been a series of steps where it feels like it should be an obviously good deal for all parties, and it never is. De Ligt is definitely a player who has been dining out on former glories for a little too long now.

28. Jadon Sancho, Dortmund to Man Utd - €85m (2021) 🔴

There’s an emerging pattern with some of these signings grouped together. Sancho is a player who seemed to be such an obvious United signing that it seemed impossible that it couldn’t work out, and yet that was FOUR YEARS AGO.

United couldn’t utilise him and it was largely blamed on them - but Chelsea could get no further and his future is now in limbo.

= Darwin Nunez, Benfica to Liverpool - €85m (2022) 🔴

Make no mistake, Nunez most certainly had his moments for Liverpool, but there can be no denying that they looked an infinitely better team when Arne Slot arrived and made him surplus to requirements.

Benfica once again the masters of extracting a huge fee, Nunez is a player capable of moments of sheer class but they are shrouded by far too many moments of sheer mania for it to have worked under a manager like Slot. Maybe he will find a home somewhere else - he deserves to.

30. Virgil van Dijk, Southampton to Liverpool - €84.7m (2018) 🟢

The Best Centre Back in the World™ has been as such pretty much since winning the league title at Liverpool in 2020, even overcoming the adversity of a cruciate ligament injury to return to the very pinnacle of the game.

One of the best player/club fits in this entire list, Van Dijk may be ageing but what he’s already achieved at Liverpool has him in the conversation to be in their greatest back four of all time.

= Romelu Lukaku, Everton to Man Utd €84.7m (2017) 🔴

A great forward in the wrong place, this happened to Lukaku at Chelsea too and sometimes it’s just not the right move for you. Perception can also be a strange thing.

The Belgian scored 16 and provided seven assists in 33 Premier League starts in his first season at United - a more than decent return. But the narrative around his build-up - heavy touch, can’t hold it in, can’t bring other people into the game - became dominant very soon and effectively killed his United career.

32. Dusan Vlahovic, Fiorentina to Juventus - €84.5m (2023) 🔴

Not terrible, but far from the explosive finisher Juventus thought they were getting when picking him up for a huge fee from Fiorentina. Two very good seasons at La Viola justified at least a percentage of the fee in the outset, but it’s not worked out at all since either for him, or indeed for Juve.

Getting him off the wage bill this summer seems to be a priority and yet there’s still an underlying feeling he could be a hit somewhere - just not here, and not now, with Juventus as they are.

33. Luis Suarez, Liverpool to Barcelona - €81.7m (2014) 🟢

A huge fee at the time for a player who was not without his baggage - he suffered his second biting incident, after the racism incident, just weeks before this deal, but Suarez will go down as one of one of Barcelona’s greatest-ever centre-forwards in what is an illustrious list.

Racking up scoring records only Messi and Ronaldo could compete with, Suarez took his game to another level at Camp Nou and while all the off-the-pitch furore made this deal a risk, his on-pitch ability was never a factor.

34. Arthur Melo, Barcelona to Juventus - €80.6m (2020) 🔴

A bit more to this deal than meets the eye as there was a mutual transfer in which Miralem Pjanic went in the opposite direction, nevertheless Melo’s career resembles that of the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter.

Did anyone actually ever see him play, or was he in our imaginations the entire time? Whichever it was, it’s safe to say that his career, for better or worse, is the least impactful of anyone on this entire list.

35. Wesley Fofana, Leicester to Chelsea - €80.4m (2022) 🔴

A great defender for a short period, whose career has been utterly destroyed by injury and though he’s only 24, he has only played 2,300 PL minutes in three seasons, including missing all of 2023/24.

Fofana even received a full cap for France prior to joining Chelsea but it’s been hugely difficult for him and there’s every hope he makes a recovery - but at this point the fee has been an expensive disaster.

36. Aurelien Tchouameni, Monaco to Real Madrid - €80m (2022) 🟢

Will cost a fair bit more than this upfront fee with add-ons, and while has been brilliant on occasion maybe hasn’t hit the stellar heights expected. And yet he has been pretty much undroppable for Carlo Ancelotti last season despite being more of a utility player before that.

With Luka Modric now gone it’s now clear for the Frenchman to provide the base of Xabi Alonso’s midfield for the foreseeable future.

= Kai Havertz, Leverkusen to Chelsea - €80m (2020) 🔴

It might well still work out for Havertz in England at Arsenal, but despite a Champions League final goal, he never found a home at Chelsea in any position.

He has been adapted into an outright centre-forward at Arsenal but he doesn’t seem all that sure that’s where he wants to be, though he looks more comfortable there than at Stamford Bridge where the timing and the fit just were not right for either party.

= Nicolas Pepe, Lille to Arsenal - €80m (2019) 🔴

Maybe the worst Premier League signing ever? It’s a close run thing with Antony to United and a few others, but this was a fee that is almost difficult to imagine now given how out of context it is with Pepe’s decent, but limited, skillset.

Stats in Ligue 1 propped up by penalties simply did not translate into much of anything at Arsenal, where he looked so obviously not the player the Gunners thought he was, or could be.

= Lucas Hernandez, Atletico Madrid to Bayern - €80m (2019) 🔴

Hernandez was never a regular starter at Bayern but it was less to do with his talent and more to do with a serious run of persistent injuries which destroyed any momentum he was trying to build.

Hernandez has suffered four ligament tears in his career, from semi-serious to season-ending, and he started just 10 matches in the Bundesliga in the first year as a result. He still contributed in a big way in the 2022/23 season but it was all-too-little for what was a record-breaking deal for a full-back.

= Kepa Arrizabalaga - Athletic Club to Chelsea - €80m (2018) 🔴

Kepa has gone on somewhat of a redemption arc in spells at Real Madrid and Bournemouth, now at Arsenal as back-up.

But all of that has been on Chelsea’s dime while he’s playing for someone else. Not at all remembered by Chelsea fans, who had it good with Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois and have struggled hopelessly to find a goalkeeper of that quality ever since - with Kepa no exception. His League Cup final embarrassment - when he refused to be subbed before penalties - summed things up.

41. Zinedine Zidane, Juventus to Real Madrid - €77.5m (2001) 🟢

An absolutely huge fee for a player who was about to turn 30, but any Florentino Perez Galacticos project of the time that didn’t include Zidane just wouldn’t have felt right.

A genius Champions League final goal and league/CL win in his first season was followed with more of a highlight reel career, but what a career it was. Not a single Madridista would wish for it any other way.

42. Jhon Duran, Aston Villa to Al-Nassr - €77m (2025) 🔴

He went to Saudi, he scored a few, he’s gone already, less than six months later.

Does it say more about the transfer, or Saudi itself?

43. Kevin De Bruyne, Wolfsburg to Man City - €76m (2015) 🟢

Chelsea’s loss was Man City’s gain, albeit via a trip to Germany, as they landed one of the greatest Premier League players ever and got over 10 years of exemplary service.

De Bruyne’s legacy is obvious, in the league titles, the Champions League, the unfeasible amount of assists, and the fact that there probably hasn’t been a Premier League player quite like him.

44. Kai Havertz, Chelsea to Arsenal - €75m (2023) 🟠

Definitely not a complete success but also far from a failure at Arsenal, Havertz performed dutifully in the centre-forward role for the Gunners seemingly in the absence of other available options.

If Arsenal eventually solve that problem this summer, it will be interesting to see where he would find himself in Mikel Arteta’s system. But the fact is that the incredible, dynamic Havertz from Leverkusen just hasn’t looked as assured in English football.

= Victor Osimhen, Lille to Napoli - €75m (2020) 🟢

Osimhen took a bit of time to get into the goalscoring groove in Naples but once he did he did so in absolutely devastating fashion, securing Napoli’s long-awaited Scudetto.

His 26 goals in 30 starts were integral to that run and his strike rate has always been of a good level. And what’s more, should things pan out this summer then Napoli will get all of their original investment back. Now that’s what you call a good deal.

= Angel Di Maria, Real Madrid to Man Utd - €75m (2014) 🔴

A transfer that looked game-changing on paper, and given what Di Maria achieved before and indeed after this spell at Old Trafford, it was certainly more logical than much of United’s other transfer business.

But the fact is that he never settled in rainy Manchester and when his house was robbed and family threatened, his form was already on the downturn after a fairly promising start. It was a situation United were happy to get out of relatively unscathed when PSG came calling.

= James Rodriguez, Monaco to Real Madrid - €75m (2014) 🔴

Back in the day it was the done thing for Real Madrid to buy one of the best players at the World Cup, having done it with Ronaldo in 2002 and Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 (they already had the Golden Ball in Zinedine Zidane in 2006, and Luka Modric in 2018).

In this case it was the top scorer in 2014, James Rodriguez, who wooed all watching and actually started well at Real Madrid, showcasing his talent. But it was very quickly diminishing returns; six years later, he was at Everton after struggling to find a role in a game that got too quick for him.

= Julian Alvarez, Man City to Atletico Madrid - €75m (2022) 🟢

Alvarez joined City off the back of a stunning World Cup as a serious foil for Lionel Messi’s Argentina and from a substitution role in his first season he blossomed into an essential starter for Pep Guardiola in his second.

Alvarez’s form was such that it was a surprise that City chose to cash in on him but, perhaps sensing they needed to rebuild in other areas, reluctantly sold for a gigantic markup, and he has excelled in Spain, too.

= Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Napoli to PSG - €75m (2025) 🟢

The most recent transfer on this list but it’s difficult to think of a modern-day example of a signing making such a complete and immediate impact.

Kvara arrived in Paris just six months ago but became the final piece of the jigsaw for a team that were just waiting to click into gear. His work with Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele has made even the most argent anti-PSG brigade admit that… this team is pretty good.

= Omar Marmoush, Eintracht Frankfurt to Man City - €75m (2025) 🟠

A very promising start for the City arrival in January but it’s only early days. This list should tell you that some deals start well, and go bad quickly… we’ll see.

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So the grand total? FootballTransfers regards 54% of the top 50 deals to have been failures while the jury is out on another 18%. So all in all, 3 of every 4 deals in the top 50 weren’t an outright success. Don’t agree? Please let us know.

🟢 = 14/50 (28%)

🟠 = 9/50 (18%)

🔴 = 27/50 (54%)