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 newly-discovered gaseous planet Kepler-16b orbits it's two stars. NASA's Kepler Mission discoverd the world orbiting two Stars, the larger a K dwarf and the smaller a red dwarf. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle via Getty Images)

Members of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park to mark the 60 anniversary of the accession of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

A woman rows her boat as she harvests tomatoes on Inle lake, in Myanmar's Shan State September 4, 2015. Inle is one of the country's most popular tourist sites. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Spain supporters celebrate as Spain's Nico Williams scores the opening goal in Madrid, Spain, July 14, 2024 during the screening of the final match between Spain and England at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Berlin Germany. (Photo by Andrea Comas/AP Photo)

Ferencvaros's David Siger lies on the ground to defend a free kick during the UEFA Champions League Group Stage match between Ferencvarosi TC and Juventus at Puskas Arena on November 4, 2020 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

Serbian police officers of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit pose for a picture in their base outside Belgrade October 8, 2014. When the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, in August sparked sometimes violent protests, the response of police in camouflage gear and armoured vehicles wielding stun grenades and assault rifles seemed more like a combat operation than a public order measure. Some U.S. police departments have recently acquired U.S. military-surplus hardware from wars abroad, but there are many law enforcers around the world whose rules of engagement also allow the use of lethal force with relatively few restrictions. But for every regulation that gives police wide scope to use firearms, there is another code that sharply limits their use. In Serbia, police may use measures ranging from batons to special vehicles, water cannon and tear gas on groups of people who have gathered illegally and are behaving in a way that is violent or could cause violence, but they may use firearms only when life is endangered. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Emily Ratajkowski, left, a cast member in “We Are Your Friends”, walks the red carpet at the premiere of the film at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Thursday, August 20, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Photo)