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.

Bride Ana Vallejos, wearing a traditional “Caporales” Andean outfit, is escorted by her parents to her wedding celebration, in La Paz, Bolivia, Saturday, December 12, 2020. As a measure to reactivate the economy, the Bolivian government lifted restrictions to help curve the spread of the new coronavirus. Sporting, religious and cultural events may take place publicly until mid-January. (Photo by Juan Karita/AP Photo)

Robert Burck, better known as the “Naked Cowboy”, falls in the snow during a nor'easter storm in Manhattan, New York City on December 17, 2020. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Farmers take a break for lunch while celebrating National Paddy Day, also called Asar Pandra, that marks the commencement of rice crop planting in paddy fields as monsoon season arrives, in Kathmandu, Nepal, June 29, 2020. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Audience members react as American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift gets onstage to receive the Artist of the Year award during 2022 American Music Awards, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

The Duchess of Cambridge comes down a slide during a visit to the LEGO Foundation PlayLab at the Carlsberg Campus, University College Copenhagen, Denmark, on day one of a two-day working visit with The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood on Tuesday, February 22, 2022. (Photo by John Sibley/PA Wire Press Association)

A man in a wartime uniform, poses for a photo on an abandoned tank at a beach, ahead of the 60th anniversary of Second Taiwan Straits Crisis against China, in Kinmen, Taiwan on August 19, 2018. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)