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.

The finishing touches are made to a new wax figure of Theresa May at Madame Tussauds in London, England on November 7, 2017. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Wire)

A reporter takes pictures of a soldier during the annual Han Kuang military exercise in Kinmen, Taiwan, September 7, 2015. Rustic Kinmen, with a population of less than 129,000, is a half-hour ferry ride to China, but it takes an hour to fly to major Taiwan cities. Just off its shores, glass-walled high-rises wink seductively from the booming mainland port of Xiamen in one of China's most prosperous provinces. (Photo by Pichi Chuang/Reuters)

A skydiver dressed as Santa Claus prepares to leap out of a plane as 155 tandem skydivers set a new Guinness World Record over eight hours, over the Australian city of Wollongong, December 17, 2016. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

An Indian journalist poses with the wax statue of American actress Kim Kardashian (L) and American actor Will Smith (R) during the launch of Madame Tussauds Delhi in New Delhi on November 30, 2017. The wax museum will be open for the visitors from 01 December on. Madame Tussauds New Delhi features 50 wax figures of personalities from the fields of sports, music, film, history and politics. (Photo by Sajjad Hussain/AFP Photo)

In this image released on November 08, American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys performs for at the MTV EMA's 2020 on November 01, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. The MTV EMA's aired on November 08, 2020. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for MTV)

France's Alize Cornet falls down during her women's singles tennis match against Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina on the fourth day of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 6, 2023. (Photo by Glyn Kirk/AFP Photo)

A woman counts her money as she sells flowers ahead of International Women's Day in central Kiev, Ukraine on March 7, 2019. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)