Mammal Photographer of the Year and Mammal Society Member’s prize winner: Foxhall Zafira by Roger Cox. (Photo by Roger Cox/Mammal Photographer of the Year 2020)

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.

Spain's Paula Badosa gives a thumbs up after falling on the court during her women's singles semi-final match against Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka on day twelve of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 23, 2025. (Photo by David Gray/AFP Photo)

A rail worker fixing a fog warning notice at South Woodford Railway Station in Essex. (Photo by H. F. Davis/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images). 20th October 1938

A hot air balloon flies close to the ground in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel during an international hot air balloon festival October 14, 2014. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)

Actress Tanga Chisholm (L) and actor Stephen Kramer Glickman attend the Ok! Magazine Toasts Hollywood's Sexiest Singles event at the Lexington Social House on April 14, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Actresses Vonnie Lui (R) and Yukiku Suou (L) attend the “3D s*x And Zen: Extreme Ecstacy” photocall at the Majestic Beach Pier during the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2011 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

A bakery worker carries fresh bread in Cairo, Egypt on August 1, 2021. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)