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.

Lukas Podolski of Koeln is challenged by Philipp Wollscheid of Nuernberg during the Bundesliga match between 1. FC Koeln and 1. FC Nuernberg at RheinEnergieStadion on April 3, 2011 in Cologne, Germany.

Lukas Irmler balances on a 800 meter long highline 200 meters above Segnesboden, on Friday, June 28, 2019, in Flims, Switzerland. The highline is Switzerland's longest and will be set up untill Sunday in the Sardona World Heritage Region. (Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP Photo)

Models Kendall Jenner and Joan Smalls are seen holding hands as they coordinated in pink while arriving with friends at LIV Miami during Art Basel on December 5, 2019. Luka Sabbat was also seen accompanying the women during their night out on the town. (Photo by Backgrid USA)

Activists in a clay outfits at the Rathausmarkt during the art protest campaign “1000 Gestalten” (lit 1000 figures), for more solidarity and political participation, in Hamburg, Germany, 17 June 2017. In a two-hour show hundreds of actors took part in a creative public appeal for more humanity and self-responsibility ahead of the upcoming G20 summit. The G20 economic summit takes place in Hamburg July 7-8. (Photo by Lukas Barth-Tuttas/DPA/Alamy Live News)

“Jessica”, a silicon sеx doll for sexual encounters lies on a bed at the “Bordoll” brothel on April 17, 2019 in Dortmund, Germany. Bordoll is Germany's first brothel to specialize in sеx dolls. It currently offers 13 female dolls and one male doll and will soon be expanding its female line-up. Schwarz says “sеx dolls are so popular because the client can do what he wants to and nobody complains”. (Photo by Lukas Schulze/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Nick Uhlig and Philipp Oettel race alongside Lukas Erlecke and Leon Freygang during the opening round of the German sidecar championship at the 58th ADAC Motocross in Schopfheim, Deutschland on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Grant Hubbs/IMAGO via Avalon)

Canberra resident Bruce Gibbons is seen surrounded by grazing kangaroos as he plays a shot during a session on a practice fairway at Gold Creek Golf Club in Canberra, Australia, May 16, 2017. (Photo by Lukas Coch/Reuters/AAP)