Spectators watch Austria's Stefan Kraft in action during the Viessmann FIS Ski Jumping World Cup Willingen on January 31, 2021 in Willingen, Germany. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

Madison Chock, top, and Evan Bates, bottom, perform during the ice dance rhythm dance competition at the U.S. figure skating championships Friday, January 24, 2025, in Wichita, Kan. (Photo by Travis Heying/AP Photo)

An Israeli soldier waits at the bus station, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel on August 15, 2024. (Photo by Florion Goga/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.

Russian soldiers from 34th motorized infantry mountain brigade, 58th Army, prepare to evacuate a fellow soldier acting as an injured person during a drill at the Darial range outside Russia's city of Vladikavkaz, July 28, 2010. (Photo by Kazbek Basayev/Reuters)

Singer Rihanna prepares for a photoshoot with photographer Annie Leibovitz in Havana, Cuba, May 28, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Lioness and hyena posture to one another, in Masai Mara, Kenya, August 2015. A photographer captured one of the oldest rivalries in the animal kingdom as a pair of lions went head to head with a pack of hungry hyenas. (Photo by Ingo Gerlach/Barcroft Images)