Neymar is not the most expensive: Which Premier League “blockbuster” is the No. 1 in history?

The real transfer record of the Premier League was set nearly 30 years ago and is worth more than Neymar’s record.

The Premier League transfer record is held by Chelsea after they paid Inter Milan £ 97.5 million in the summer of 2021 to buy Romelu Lukaku. Before that, Paul Pogba was the record holder for £ 89 million transferred from Juventus to MU.

Lukaku is the most expensive purchase of Premier League in the amount of 97.5 million pounds

But inflation and the volatility of the money markets, as well as the change of European football itself, have caused today’s fees to skyrocket, and some of the transfer records of nearly 20 years ago are now only is a “mosquito” compared to the spending ability of the clubs now. In 1996, the price of the Premier League license was then 670 million pounds, but now it is 5.1 billion pounds (and only in the country).

If the record fees of the 1990s are compared to today’s cash values ​​based on the inflation rate, which “blockbuster” is really the Premier League’s all-time record? The Athletic recently conducted an assessment of the transfer fee of the past based on calculations from an expert of the Bank of England (Bank of England).

With these calculations, The Athletic announced the top 10 most expensive deals in Premier League history and it is not surprising that past deals account for the majority. Alan Shearer was already a record transfer when he was bought by Newcastle from Blackburn Rovers in 1996 for £15 million, but at current value for money it would cost £222 million, the most expensive in history. football, more than the £199.8 million fee Paris Saint-Germain paid Barcelona to buy Neymar in 2017.

Alan Shearer leads all-time Premier League transfer record after calculating inflation rate

Juan Sebastian Veron joining MU from Lazio has long been a forgotten deal, but the £28.1 million fee in 2001 compared to now makes the Argentinian midfielder the second most expensive purchase in history. football and the most expensive in MU history at 155.4 million pounds. Veron wasn’t very successful at Old Traffordas well as the man behind him Stan Collymore of Liverpool.

Rio Ferdinand is the player with the “honor” of appearing twice on this list, when the transfer fee to bring Ferdinand from West Ham to Leeds and then to MU is worth more than 100 million pounds today. Paul Pogba is the only player still playing in the top 10, compared to 2016, MU’s fee for Juventus is now £126 million.

But the top 10 is not enough, The Athletic even made it to the top 90 and among these there are really interesting transfers, because the price is cheap compared to now but that day was a fortune for the clubs. Examples are the cases of Fabrizio Ravanelli, Chris Sutton, Jaap Stam, Michael Essien, Roy Keane, Les Ferdinand, Sylvain Wilford and Thierry Henry.

Top 20 and top 30 records according to The Athletic’s statistics

Among them, Roy Keane cost MU “only” £ 3.75 million in 1993 when he moved from Nottingham Forest, but today the price is up to £ 94.2 million, an amount even the European giants are timid when spend to buy midfielder. And Keane is worth every penny when looking at MU’s record of the 12 years he played.

Thierry Henry joined Arsenal for 11 million pounds from Juventus, a semi-liquidation fee for the “Old Lady” because Henry played unsuccessfully in Turin. In today’s money, Henry is worth £90 million, and it can be said that it is worth every penny for Arsenal when he won 6 trophies at the club and became the No. 1 goalscorer in the history of the “Gunners”.

Top 90 most expensive transfers in the Premier League according to The Athletic

Alan Shearer’s 16 greatest goals