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.

Revellers paint faces at Worthy Farm in Somerset for the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England, on June 21, 2017. The largest greenfield festival in the world Glastonbury Festival is now a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts. The Somerset Festival, which Michael Eavis started in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just £1, now attracts more than 175,000 people. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

Female female male threesome. My bit on the side is my best male friend. (Photo by Laoshi/Getty Images)

Vendors selling vegetables wait for customers under a flyover in the early morning in Ahmedabad, India on February 1, 2017. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

A man wearing a mask looks on as he sells matresses in Manila, Philippines, January 8, 2020. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

Vendors selling bread wait for customers at a roadside hotel in Quetta on March 25, 2024. (Photo by Banaras Khan/AFP Photo)

A man sells eels caught for a meal amid a lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, in a slum area of Yangon, Myanmar, October 21, 2020. (Photo by Shwe Paw Mya Tin/Reuters)

A woman sells props outside a church on as members of India's Christian community celebrate Christmas eve in Mumbai, India, December 24, 2020. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)