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.

The Jet Propulsion Lab team's RoboSimian robot turns on a valve at a simulated disaster-response course during day one of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge finals in Pomona, California, June 5, 2015. (Photo by David McNew/Reuters)

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Women, dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos, cross a street in Kyoto, western Japan November 19, 2014. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Vehicles drive amid rainfall in Hyderabad, Pakistan, 27 June 2025. Heavy monsoon rains have impacted major cities across Pakistan, including Islamabad, Lahore, Hyderabad and Karachi, triggering urban flooding and power outages. Authorities remain on high alert. (Photo by Nadeem Khawar/EPA)

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A person wearing a face mask holds a cat on Swanston Street after cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, January 29, 2020. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Commuters by with the buildings of the banking district in background in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, February 6, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)