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.

A Syrian Kurdish ballet dancer performs in an empty market during a lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on April 7, 2021. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP Photo)

Ukraine's Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk reacts during the women's triple jump final at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on March 20, 2022. (Photo by Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

Member of Twycross Zoo, Lily-Jean Morales, seven, visits The Gruffalo Discovery Land, a brand-new four-acre experience at Twycross Zoo, in Leicestershire on April 7, 2022, before it opens to the public on Saturday. (Photo by PA Wire Press Association)

Women pose for photographs infront of an art installation comprising of reflective stainless steel balls at a public park in Singapore on August 22, 2022. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)

A woman walks by a bank's currency advertisement board in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, September 23, 2022. Asian stocks fell for a third day Friday after more rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to control persistent inflation spurred fears of a possible global recession. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

On the festival of Krishna Janmashtami, a girl costumed as Lord Krishna poses for a photo in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 19, 2022. (Photo by Nayem Shaan/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Moroccans celebrate after their team won the Qatar 2022 World Cup round 16 football match between Morocco and Spain, in Rabat, on December 6, 2022. (Photo by Fadel Senna/AFP Photo)