The 10 most expensive football transfers of all time vs hidden fees

Football transfer rumours always circle around summer time. I say this like I knew. I did not. What I did know, is that these three emotions take over when I see the amount of money footballers go for:

1. Startled
2. Shocked
3. Shook

What I also know is that our GOAL at Wise is to SHOOT your money around the world, DEFEND you from FOUL costs, and show naughty hidden fees the RED CARD.

Football clubs know what they’re getting into when they write endless zeros on a cheque (I highly doubt they use cheques but it sounds more serious.) But you don’t always know what you’re getting into when you send or spend money internationally thanks to hidden fees.

When you look at the amount of money people lose around the world in fees and compare it to the prices on players' heads, you’ll probably be more startled/shocked/shook.

So it feels like the logical thing for me to do here is present you with the 10 most expensive football transfers of all time, and some data our Wise team commissioned on hidden fees.

A lot of people will likely have stopped reading this article following my football puns, but if you haven’t here are a few things to bear in mind before scrolling down and getting depressed you’re not a footballer, impressed with Wise and distressed by my writing:

• I’ve gone for the agreed transfer value that clubs decided on, not taking things like bonuses players would’ve negotiated or contract variables that added some extra money onto their deals.
• I don’t actually know how they transferred their money or how much it cost them. Nobody at Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain got back to me.
• I used Transfermarkt for this. Which is a very serious and reliable source. Just like me.
• I don’t have the emotional strength or capacity to handle hate mail from angry football fans if I got something wrong. I’m very sensitive.

Now let’s KICKOFF (I’ll stop, promise, please don’t leave.)

Tackle your transfers ⚽

The price you didn’t realise you were paying...

All the data you’re about to cast your eyes over is the total amount lost per country between August 2017 to March 2023. And as I already mentioned, we don’t do hidden fees here at Wise, and we use the mid-market exchange rate so you’re never going to be spending more than you need to and we’ll never mark up costs for our own benefit. This is basically my very subtle way of saying, use us 😇.

The data comes from our report “Calling for action: The state of transparency around the world” as part of our “Nothing To Hide” campaign. We did the report to expose international money transfer providers who claim that transfers are free or low but add on marked-up exchange rates behind the scenes without you realising. With a little bit of luck and support, we hope the campaign can help make hidden fees illegal so that you’re guaranteed full transparency, always.

Here are the stats…

How much are people losing on hidden fees around the world?

Europe

€12.5 billion

Canada

$13 billion

The USA

$8.7 billion

The UK

£5.6 billion

Australia

$3.1 billion

Now for the most expensive football transfers of all time...

1) Neymar

Who on earth spent this much money?

Paris Saint-Germain to get him from Barcelona.

Agreed transfer fee

€222.0 million

2) Kylian Mbappé

Who on earth spent this much money?

Paris Saint-Germain to get him from Monaco.

Agreed transfer fee

€180.00 million

3) Philippe Coutinho

Who on earth spent this much money?

Barcelona to get him from Liverpool.

Agreed transfer fee

€135.00 million

4) Ousmane Dembélé

Who on earth spent this much money?

Barcelona to get him from Borussia Dortmund.

Agreed transfer fee

€135.00 million

5) João Félix

Who on earth spent this much money?

Madrid to get him from Benfica.

Agreed transfer fee

€127.20 million

6) Enzo Fernández

Who on earth spent this much money?

Chelsea to get him from Benfica.

Agreed transfer fee

€121.00 million

7) Antoine Griezmann

Who on earth spent this much money?

Barcelona to get him from Atletico Madrid.

Agreed transfer fee

€120.00 million

8) Jack Grealish

Who on earth spent this much money?

Manchester city to get him from Aston Villa.

Agreed transfer fee

€117.50 million

9) Cristiano Ronaldo

Who on earth spent this much money?

Juventus to get him from Real Madrid.

Agreed transfer fee

€117.00 million

10) Eden Hazard

Who on earth spent this much money?

Real Madrid to get him from Chelsea.

Agreed transfer fee

€115.00 million

SAVE me from hidden fees