A mahout (a person who rides an elephant) decorates his elephant using chalk while preparing for the Elephant Festival at Sauraha in Chitwan, south of Kathmandu, December 26, 2014. Elephants and mahouts from Chitwan will participate in the Elephant festival, which involves elephant races, elephants playing an exhibition soccer match and taking part in various other sporting activities. The event will start from 26 December and will end on 30 December, 2014. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Football transfers are not cheap. To have a player strengthen their ranks, teams are willing to pay big money. The football transfer considered to be the most expensive in the sport's history was that of Gareth Bale leaving Tottenham to play at Real Madrid. The Spanish club paid not less than £86 million (about $133 million at today's exchange rates) to have the player among its own. But recent news suggest that this record might be broken this year. According to reports in the media, UK Premier League team Manchester United is willing to almost double that amount.

Nekama, a baby North Chinese leopard, emerges from a basket at her official presentation to the media at Tierpark zoo on March 15, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. Nekama was born on January 7, 2011 and currently weighs 4.5 kg.

Models pose backstage ahead of the Gary Bigeni show during Rosemount Australian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011/12 at Overseas Passenger Terminal on May 4, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Wladimir Klitschko (L) and David Haye attend a press conference on June 27, 2011 in Hamburg, Germany to preview the heavy weight title fight between them which will be held on the 2nd July 2011 at the Imtech Arena. (Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

“Unexpected x2 (a.k.a. “how much is that doggie in the window”)”. Taiwan, 2011. (Photo and caption by Asian (Street) Impressions)

Visitors photograph an animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex at the National Museum of Scotland, July 29, 2011. (Photo by David Moir/Reuters)