Top 10 most expensive forwards in football history

PSG have the top two expensive forwards in the history of the beautiful game

The world of football has been evolving economically, the sport has become more of a business, which is why the financial aspect has become more important these days. It is trend that is normalized these days, that is of agreeing on transfers for an expensive fixed amount, complemented by performance bonuses.

The clubs have started paying the release clause of the players, nowadays, talent in the world of football is overflowing. Although more clubs are trying to detect talent at an early stage in order to sign them and train them at home, some of them make their breakthrough late and go for the big bucks.

These are the 10 most expensive forwards in football history:

10. Romelu Lukaku- €113M

Romelu Lukaku returns to Chelsea in 2021, 10 years after he first joined the club as a teenager. Before signing for the club, he was the second top goal scorer in the Serie A. The fee for the Belgian forward surpassed the signing of Kai Havertz, Lukaku became the club's biggest transfer in their entire history.

9. Eden Hazard- €115M

In the summer of 2019, the former Chelsea legend left the club after scoring two goals against Arsenal in the Europa League final. The 32-year-old was unveiled by Real Madrid on June 13, he costed them 115 million euros and was considered a fantastic player. However, things didn't go according to the plan, he has not appeared for the club as much as we all wanted due to injuries, and there are speculations he might retire from football.

8. Cristiano Ronaldo- €117M

Ronaldo has made history in many ways, including the cost of his transfers. In 2009, Real Madrid landed him from Manchester United for 96 million, an outlay that no club had ever made before and was welcomed by 80,000 fans in the stadium. He accomplished everything at Madrid before the summer of 2018, Juventus paid 117M euros to the Spanish capital side which made him the highest transfer in the history of Serie A.

7. Jack Grealish- €117.5M

Premier League's most talked-about players made a life changing switch from Aston Villa for a whopping €117.5 million to Manchester City. Manchester City made him the highest-paid English player in the history, he has since then made his way through Pep's XI and most recently he won the treble with the English side.

6. Antoine Griezmann- €120M

At a point, Barcelona were out of striker options and as soon as his Griezmann's release clause lowered from 200M to 120M the Spanish club went after him and signed him from Atletico Madrid, he partnered with Lionel Messi during his time at Barcelona. But, 120M couldn't stop him from re-joining Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid from Barcelona.

5. Joao Felix- €127.2M

In 2019, Joao Felix joined agreed to join Atletico Madrid from Benfica. He went on to enjoy a breakout season in 2018-19, netting 15 goals and providing nine assists in 26 appearances as Benfica reclaimed the Primeira Liga title. It was a step nobody thought Atletico would take because he only played one season in the Premieira, cut to 3 years later he was sent on loan to Chelsea.

4. Ousmane Dembele- €135M

The 26-year-old France international signed a five-year contract for Barcelona in 2017, Barcelona completed a deal to sign Borussia Dortmund forward Ousmane Dembele for an initial 96.8m, potentially rising to 135m making him the fourth most expensive signing. Before joining Barcelona, Dembele scored 10 goals and provided 21 assists as Dortmund finished third in the Bundesliga, won the German Cup, and reached the Champions League quarter-finals.

3. Phillipe Coutinho- €135M

Months after Dembele was the most expensive signing in Barcelona's history, Coutinho was the next, raising the bar to the unprecedented €120m which included enforceable variables that put the spending at around €135m. Even though he made this decision to join from Liverpool, he is the one who has suffered the most from the signing. Liverpool have since won the Champions League and the Premier League.

2. Kylian Mbappe- €180M

The 24-year-old striker followed the footsteps of Neymar by joining the Parc des Princes side, he was signed from Monaco initially on a loan deal but PSG completed the signing of the French international making it a permanent move. At that time, he was expected to become the world’s second most expensive player, with the deal reported to be as much as €180 million and the most expensive teenager in the history of football.

1. Neymar- €222M

PSG had considered a move to sign Ronaldo or Messi but due to Ronaldo's age and Messi's love for Barcelona they couldn't reach to an agreement. Neymar was the third best player in the world at that moment, he wanted to become the best so he decided to leave Barcelona to join PSG. In 2017, a story surfaced that PSG would make a move for the Brazilian making him the highest paid player and few days later Neymar broke the transfer record as he became the highest paid player, this became the biggest transfer story in the world of football.