da heads bet： This is getting out of hand now.
da apostebet： Transfer fees are spiralling out of control and in reality, it has gone too far this way to ever go back again and will probably continue to rise over the next 20 years.
The first player to ever be transferred for a fee of over £100 was Scottish striker Willie Groves when he made the switch from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa in 1893. It took just twelve years for the figure to become £1000, when Sunderland striker Alf Common moved to Middlesbrough.
It wasn’t until 1928 that the first five-figure transfer took place. David Jack of Bolton Wanderers was the subject of interest from Arsenal and was transferred for a world record fee when Arsenal paid £10,890 for his services.
Then the figures started to rise and the first player from outside Great Britain to break the record was Bernabe Ferreyra, a player known as La Fiera for his powerful shot. His 1932 transfer from Tigre to River Plate cost £23k.
Staying with world record transfer fees and the first player to twice be transferred for world record fees is Diego Maradona. His transfers from Boca Juniors to Barcelona for £3m, and then to Napoli for £5m, both broke the record in 1982 and 1984 respectively.
In the 1990s the transfer record was broken three times in 61 days and now the whole situation has erupted into this unexplainable mire of what individual talent is worth, but no one appears to actually know how we’ve got ourselves in this financial pricing structure, where an average player is valued in the millions.
It has always been said that something is only worth what someone will pay for it, but when it comes to footballers it seems that the wealthy teams are willing to pay just about anything for that word – success.
Real Madrid have always held the record, with the only players to subsequently break the record being Zinedine Zidane in 2001 when signed for £46m from Juventus, the £80m transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in 2009 and Gareth Bale in 2013, who became the first player to cost €100m when he transferred from Tottenham Hotspur.
In the last couple of days, Juventus have splashed out over £75m on Gonzalo Higuain, but on top of that is the possible transfer of Paul Pogba to Manchester United, which could cost over £100m.
Although Pogba is a talented footballer and one of Europe’s best, the Frenchman is not a footballing great. Nor is he better than Ronaldo or Messi, who would surely command even more in transfer fees, should the latter ever leave the comfort of the Nou Camp.
No player on the face of it is worth the kind of money now being spent – no matter who they are.
Former Manchester United player, Paul Scholes, who left United in 2013, saw Pogba’s potential as a teenager at the club, but believes the 23-year-old is not worth a world-record fee.
“He was a very talented young player, I played with him and I knew how good he was,” said Scholes, who was talking to Sky Sports.
“I just don’t think he is worth £86m. For that sort of money, you want someone who is going to score 50 goals a season like Ronaldo or Messi. Pogba is nowhere near there yet.”
Big fees, big wages and big PR is sadly no guarantee of success and each transfer is a gamble.
Is Pogba worth committing over £100m to?
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