Saturday 27th June 2009
Football's fantastic five mega deals
Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid from Manchester United has been finalised for a world record transfer fee of £80million.
Here, we take a look at five other record-breaking deals.
1 Kaka, £56million from AC Milan to Real Madrid 2009
Just three days before Real revealed they had an agreement to sign Ronaldo, they made their first major purchase of the summer following Florentino Perez's return as president with the capture of brilliant Brazilian Kaka. The midfielder had rejected a move to Manchester City in January - for nearly double the fee - but the bumper pay day for cash-strapped Milan sealed the deal this time.
2 Zinedine Zidane, £46.7million, Juventus to Real Madrid 2001
Following the controversial arrival of Luis Figo in the Spanish capital a year before, Perez continued his now-infamous 'galacticos' project with the capture of the then FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane from Italian giants Juventus for a world record fee.
3 Luis Figo, £37million, Barcelona to Real Madrid 2000
Perez was elected Real president in the summer of 2000 on the back of his promise to do the unthinkable and bring the star player from arch-rivals Barcelona to the Bernabeu. Upon appointment he was true to his word, breaking the world transfer record by signing Figo for £37million.
4 Hernan Crespo, £35.7million Parma to Lazio 2000
In the summer of 2000, Sven-Goran Eriksson's Lazio were Serie A champions and flush with cash following the sale of Christian Vieri to Inter Milan a year before for a then world-record fee. They spent £35.7million of their money on Parma's Hernan Crespo, who finished top scorer in the league in his first season in Rome but was unable to help the club defend their Scudetto and also left for Inter in 2002.
5 Robinho, £32.5million, Real Madrid to Manchester City 2008
Having been taken over by the super-rich Abu Dhabi United Group on the final day of the 2008 summer transfer window, the new owners of Manchester City made a signal of their intent by beating Chelsea to the signing of unsettled Brazilian star Robinho from Real Madrid in a Premier League record deal worth £32.5million.
World Record Deals (in pounds sterling)
1905 Alf Common - Sunderland to Middlesbrough for £1,000
1922 Syd Puddefoot - West Ham to Falkirk for £5,500
1922 Warney Cresswell - South Shields to Sunderland for £5,500
1928 David Jack - Bolton to Arsenal for £10,890
1932 Bernabe Ferreyra - Tigre to River Plate for £23,000
1952 Hans Jeppson - Atalanta to Napoli for £52,000
1954 Juan Schiaffino - Penarol to AC Milan for £72,000
1957 Enrique Omar Sivori - River Plate to Juventus for £93,000
1961 Luis Suarez - Barcelona to Inter Milan for £152,000
1963 Angelo Sormani - Mantova to Roma for £250,000
1968 Pietro Anastasi - Varese to Juventus for £500,000
1973 Johan Cruyff - Ajax to Barcelona for £922,000
1975 Giuseppe Savoldi - Bologna to Napoli for £1,200,000
1976 Paolo Rossi - Juventus to Vicenza for £1,750,000
1982 Diego Maradona - Boca Juniors to Barcelona for £3,000,000
1984 Diego Maradona - Barcelona to Napoli for £5,000,000
1987 Ruud Gullit - PSV Eindhoven to AC Milan for £6,000,000
1990 Roberto Baggio - Fiorentina to Juventus for £8,000,000
1992 Jean-Pierre Papin - Marseille to AC Milan for £10,000,000
1992 Gianluca Vialli - Sampdoria to Juventus for £12,000,000
1992 Gianluigi Lentini - Torino to AC Milan for £13,000,000
1996 Alan Shearer - Blackburn to Newcastle for £15,000,000
1997 Ronaldo - Barcelona to Inter Milan for £19,500,000
1998 Denilson - Sao Paulo to Real Betis for £21,500,000
1999 Christian Vieri - Lazio to Inter Milan for £32,000,000
2000 Hernan Crespo - Parma to Lazio for £35,500,000
2000 Luis Figo - Barcelona to Real Madrid for £37,000,000
2001 Zinedine Zidane - Juventus to Real Madrid for £46,000,000
2009 Kaka - AC Milan to Real Madrid for £56,000,000
2009 Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United to Real Madrid for £80,000,000
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