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.

Oded Balilty is an Israeli documentary photographer. He is an Associated Press photographer and won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2007. Photo: A Jewish settler struggles with an Israeli security officer during clashes that erupted as authorities evacuated the West Bank settlement outpost of Amona, east of the Palestinian town of Ramallah, in this February 1, 2006, file photo. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

Brittany Ching dressed as a character from the sci-film “Avatar” at the annual Denver Comic Con at the Colorado Convention Center on June 16, 2016. (Photo by AndyCross/The Denver Post)

Children play football in Bujumbura, Burundi on March 19, 2015. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

A Pakistani scavenger girl writes on a notebook she collected from a garbage, while another girl sits next to her in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Thousands of children pick recyclable items from waste dumping points to earn living for their poor families. (Photo by K. M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

Catholic pilgrim Matilde Madalena de Jesus crawls on a rocky trail carrying a bottle of water on her head during the annual pilgrimage of the dead (Romaria dos Finados), in the city of Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara state, in Brazil October 31, 2016. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

Carlos Melendez prepares to feed his pet squirrel “Colita” in downtown San Salvador January 29, 2015. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)