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 woman plays around as she walks across a glass-bottomed suspension bridge in a scenic zone in Pingjiang county in southern China's Hunan province Thursday, September 24, 2015. The bridge, 300 meters (984 feet) long and 180 meters (590 feet), opened to visitors on Thursday for the first time since its conversion from a regular suspension bridge was completed. (Photo by Chinatopix Via AP Photo)

A paddler races in a giant pumpkin during the annual regatta on Lake Pisiquid in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Sunday, October 11, 2015. Participants hollow out the massive gourds and pilot them across the 500 meter course. (Photo by Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press via AP Photo)

A woman rides the world's longest urban zip line, with a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour on a one kilometer run from 170 meter to ground level, in the Marina district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, December 5, 2017. (Photo by Kamran Jebreili/AP Photo)

Workers sleep on a railway track under repair in New Delhi, India, June 15, 2018. (Photo by Saumya Khandelwal/Reuters)

A woman fancy dressed as the character of La Catrina poses before taking part in the Catrinas Parade, commemorating the Day of the Dead, in Mexico City, on October 23, 2022. (Photo by Claudio Cruz/AFP Photo)

Model Irina Shayk shields herself from rain as she leaves the grand opening of Falconeri in SoHo of New York on October 16, 2019. (Photo by Backgrid USA)

Bikini-clad women sit as they operate a 3.6 metre-high custom-made female robot at the “Robot Restaurant” in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, August 15, 2012. (Photo by Tokyo Scum Brigade)