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.

Members of Chinese Shaolin Temple Warrior Monks perform martial arts during the “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” Gala in Toronto, Canada, on February 27, 2016. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua/Sipa USA)

Ludivine Sagna walks the runway and wears a chocolate costume made by designer and a chocolate maker during the Fashion Chocolate show at Salon du Chocolat at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles in Paris, France, October 28, 2014. (Photo by LAURENTVU/SIPA Press)

A young Chinese girl kicks during a kung-fu class at Ritan Park on June 11, 2016 in Beijing, China. Ritan, meaning “sun altar”, is among the oldest parks in Beijing, built in the early 1500s during the Ming dynasty for the emperor to make sacrifices to the sun. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A doll in a children's gas mask is seen amongst beds at a kindergarten in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on March 28, 2016. Deadly radiation still spews from Chernobyl 30 years after the worst nuclear meltdown in history, as a newly built giant arch is pulled into place to cover the stricken reactor for the next century. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Olympe, the latest creation by artist Aspencrow, is unveiled at JD Malat gallery in London, England on March 27, 2019. It is a sculpture of Cara Delevingne based on the Greek mythological monster Medusa. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Students take photos with a giant King Kong sculptures made out straw in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai on April 3, 2019. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP Photo)

A young girl taking part in a hairdressing contest during the 5th Abilympics Russia vocational skills championship for people with disabilities, at Moscow's VDNKh exhibition centre in Moscow, Russia on November 21, 2019. The competition is aimed at ensuring social adaptation and job opportunities for people with disabilities. (Photo by Valery Sharifulin/TASS)