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.

South African model Candice Swanepoel walks the red carpet ahead of the “Marriage Story” screening during during the 76th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on August 29, 2019 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)

It’s time to start watching for Comet PANSTARRS, one of two comets to get excited about in 2013. Photo: This image provided by NASA shoaws the comet PANSTARRS as seen from Mount Dale, Western Australia on March 5, 2013. According to NASA on March 10, it will make its closest approach to the sun about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) away. As it continues its nightly trek across the sky, the comet may get lost in the sun's glare but should return and be visible to the naked eye by March 12. (Photo by AP Photo/NASA)

Samuel (9), Leah (10) and Matthew Flynn (7), from Baldoyle, Dublin, enjoying the fine weather on Burrow Beach in Sutton, Ireland on June 2, 2023. (Photo by Tom Honan for The Irish Times)

Jenn Brown of CFX (Composite Effects) adjusts a silicon mask based on Pinhead from the movie franchise “Hellraiser” in their stall during Preview Night at the 2022 Comic-Con International at the San Diego Convention Center, Wednesday, July 20, 2022, in San Diego. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

Nikolai Vasilyev, 62, dressed as Father Frost, Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, water-skis along the Yenisei River outside Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, December 10, 2015. Vasilyev, a teacher of the Krasnoyarsk Aerospace Academy, constructed the self-made water skis to travel on the water surface. The skis are made of plastic foam and the sticks are designed to propel him forward. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

An Iraqi military vehicle passes displaced Iraqi boys returning to their homes in West Mosul's Oreibi neighbourhood after government forces retook control of the area from the Islamic State (IS) group during the ongoing offensive against the jihadists on May 21, 2017. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Two people ride a motorcycle as a Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet approaches for landing at an air force base in Hsinchu in northern Taiwan on May 23, 2024. China on May 23 encircled Taiwan with naval vessels and military aircraft in war games aimed at punishing the self-ruled island after its new president vowed to defend democracy. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)