Money makes the football world go round, so they say, and that’s been the case, particularly in France and Spain as Ligue 1 and La Liga have dominated the big cash deals over the past few seasons.
Some massive fees have changed hands to move the very best players from club to club and, while the very biggest deals have been elsewhere, the Premier League has seen the money men making some big splashes recently. Jack Grealish went from Aston Villa to Manchester City for 117m Euros in 2021 and in his first season at the Etihad Stadium he seemed a little weighed down by the price tag, but he is fast becoming a key part of Pep Guardiola’s squad.
But one deal which did go sour was the return of France star Paul Pogba to Manchester United in 2016. The Old Trafford club paid out a whopping 115m Euros to bring him back from Juventus in 2016, but the midfielder then spent six largely unsuccessful seasons in Salford before heading back into the arms of the Old Lady.
When Romelu Lukaku re-signed for Chelsea , in an eye-watering 115m Euros switch from Inter Milan it had the same sort of feel about it after the Belgian goal machine struggled to find any form and just scratched eight goals together, the year after winning a Scudetto with Inter Milan, where he has now returned on loan.
But these Premier League moves, staggeringly, don’t make it into the five biggest deals of all time, and not all of those have been a success.
Neymar: 222m Euros – Barcelona to PSG
His move from Barcelona to Paris in 2017 was a ground-breaking deal for the club’s Qatari owners and the Brazilian striker has delivered, with 80 goals in 106 appearances for the Ligue 1 giants. They dominate the domestic league but are yet to break through the glass ceiling of the Champions League and that is the owners aim. Neymar has been part of the PSG soap opera again this season which involves another big name who moved for megabucks.
Kylian Mbappe: 188m Euros – Monaco to PSG
He lit up the 2022 World Cup final with a hat-trick and Kylian Mbappe is fast becoming the hottest property in football, and he hit the headlines in 2018 when he moved to PSG at the age of 19 for a fee of 188m. Mbappe has scored 118 goals in 129 games for the Parisiens and last season agreed to stay at the club when it seemed he was on his way to Real Madrid. But he has irritated Neymar and team-mate Lionel Messi with some of his comments and there is clearly a clash of egos in Paris.
The football 2022 betting odds back PSG to win the title and I’m sure they will; but can Mbappe and Neymar deliver the big European prize? Only time will tell. But the owners may become impatient, as they await a return on their investment.
Phillipe Coutinho: 145m Euros – Liverpool to Barcelona
After moving to Catalonia in 2018 Coutinho’s career rather went off the boil and he was farmed out to Bayern Munich on loan, but he never replicated the form which made him such a star at Anfield and the Brazilian creative midfielder returned to the Premier League to play for Aston Villa in 2021. The Blaugrana will put that deal down as a ‘miss’.
Joao Felix: 126m Euros – Benfica to Atletico Madrid
The jury is still out on Joao Felix, to some degree, after he made a slow start at the Wanda Metropolitano, weighed down by a huge price tag and beset by injury. He had only played 26 senior games for Benfica before Los Rojiblancos splashed the cash and he is gradually finding his feet, now with 94 games and 24 goals under his belt. Felix is an undoubted talent, contributing to Atleti’s league title in 2021 and, still only 23, I think he’ll make it big in good time.
Antoine Griezmann: 120m Euros – Atletico Madrid to Barcelona
Felix arrived in Madrid just as Antoine Griezmann left for the Camp Nou and the two deals turned out to be decent business for Atleti and more bad business for Barca, as the Frenchman made a minimal impact in Barcelona and has now returned to Atleti for a cut price fee. The striker is back to his best now; Griezmann had a superb World Cup for France and, here at SBOTOP we picked him out as one of our players of the tournament, and his relationship with Felix is starting to reap dividends. Barca’s football 2022 results have been pretty impressive this season and they are favourites to win the title as Xavi’s young players are growing rapidly in stature. And with recent experience maybe the Catalans will keep their chequebook closed for a while!
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