Biggest Transfer Profits in Football: The Art of the Deal

Football is and will remain to be a sellers’ market. The clubs with the perceived high-impact commodities of top players dictate the market flow more than any other force. Not the player agents, not the contract lengths, not the players themselves. Hence the biggest transfer profits in football can rival the biggest transfer prices themselves.

Pointing out the small sums the selling club paid for the player in the past didn’t prove enough for the prices to be lowered.

#10 Antony (Ajax to Manchester United) – €79,250,000

By Ardfern - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

The painful Manchester United flop is the best piece of business a club like Ajax made. Bringing the Brazilian from Sao Paulo in 2020 for €15,750,000 after he made 12 goal involvements in 52 matches for his domestic side. He produced magic for Erik Ten Hag but in Amsterdam, scoring 24 times and making 22 assists, across 82 games. Now blowing past that number at Old Trafford, yet having only 12 goals and five assists. With numerous viral embarrassing clips.

#9 Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina to Juventus) – €80,300,000

There is another side to ranking up the biggest football transfer profits - the original side the ex-ex girlfriend. In the case of Dusan Vlahovic, his boyhood club Partizan. In the similar vein Barcelona gets a lot of its top players from Sevilla, and Fiorentina often shops in Belgrade. It will continue doing so as it bought the Serbian for just €3,200,000. Yet considering he only scored three professional goals at the time, it was a big gamble in 2018.

But it paid off, even for Partizan, as it got €1,800,000 as compensation for nurting DV9. In Florence, with indeed a shaky start, Vlahovic rounded up 108 appearances, scoring 49 goals and making eight assists. Even though he hasn't levelled up his stats at a bigger club, understandably as Max Allegri was his coach, Vlahovic has a similar numerical impact in Turin with 48 goals and 10 assists in 110 games.

#8 Jude Bellingham (Dortmund to Real Madrid) – €82,850,000

One of the best English players earned his trade in Germany upon becoming one of the most expensive players from the cradle of football that went abroad. With two external moves. Even his first move to Borussia Dortmund for €30,150,000 was enough to put him on that list, the other one just cemented him at the first spot. With 24 goals and 25 assists in 132 games for BVB in not the most attacking position as he played as a CM in Dortmund, Bellingham became a prime purchasing prospect.

Real Madrid didn't waste any time and Borussia did end up profiteering in more ways than one. With him, it was a competitive Bundesliga contender, with the money earned from his move the club reached a Champions League final only to be defeated by the player they got in 2020. Who has excelled at Real with 23 goals and 15 assists in 50 games, and a double crown.

#7 Eden Hazard (Chelsea to Real Madrid) – €85,800,000

The middle of the three transfers including Real Madrid as the final destination and one of the rare flops of the Spanish giants. Rows and paragraphs and magazines have been written about why Eden Hazard didn't continue his stellar career at Santiago Bernabeu - listing it out to injuries would be reductive.

Lille produced a generational talent that led them to a Ligue 1 title and scored 50 goals, with 53 assists in 194 appearances for the club. He was equally employed for Chelsea, rarely missing games (training was a different tale) amounting to 352 games with 110 goals and 85 assists. Roman Abramovich paid the winger €35,000,000 in 2012 and received €120,800,000 seven years later in a brilliant piece of business.

Hazard notoriously only played in 76 games for Real before an early retirement, scoring seven goals and making 12 assists. But more importantly, spending only 49 minutes on the pitch per game on average.

#6 Gareth Bale (Tottenham to Real Madrid) – €86,300,000

Despite being a player who marked a generation and scored galore with Los Blancos - 106 goals and 67 assists in 258 matches - there was a feeling that Bale could've done more. Given more. With Spurs, in two spells, he had a return of 71 goals and 53 assists in 237 matches. But he spent seven unfull seasons in north London total, but eight in La Liga.

Southampton had a gem in its hand, kept it at left-back mostly with 12 assists in 45 matches, alongside five goals. But the Welshman was wasted at the back and Spurs cashed in on pushing him up the field. Unleashing him.

#5 Moises Caicedo (Brighton to Chelsea) – €87,800,000

By jamesboyes - https://www.flickr.com/photos/37972999@N07/52252699949/, CC BY 2.0, Link

One of just three moves on this list of biggest transfer profits in football that didn’t include one of the Spanish giants. Mostly El Clasico rivals. But Chelsea might become a frequent inclusion on this list due to their spending spree resembling a spoiled inheritor of wealth.

Another of their purchases, Enzo Fernandes just got cut out outslide the list at the spot 11. Caicedo wasn't cheap for Brighton, coming from Ecuador particularly, with a price tag of €28,200,000. But the Seagulls brought a golden chest home just two and a half years after the initial purchase. With Caicedo going on a short unsuccessful loan in between, and then playing 53 games for BHA. He played a similar number of games with CFC and his market value stayed the same, which isn't a good sign. Yet The Blues are picking up steam again.

#4 Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid to Barcelona) – €90,000,000

Antoine Griezmann had numerous transfers for a player who represented only three clubs in his career. The Frenchman was brought to Atletico Madrid from Real Sociedad in 2014 for €30,000,000 after he put in 202 games for the Basque club, scoring 52 times and making 18 assists. He scored 133 goals and made 50 assists in his first stint with Atleti before his infamous move to Barca for €120,000,000.

Griez struggled to find the best place at Barca, as he wasn't the key player, but the return of 35 goals and 17 assists in 102 games of the two seasons wasn't bad. Atleti profiteered more than once from his sale, as he was bought back for under-market value.

#3 Ousmane Dembele (Dortmund to Barcelona) – €100,000,000

One of the biggest transfer profits ever is also a controversial flop. Barca didn't see the red lights when Ousmane Dembele ruined the house BVB was paying for him in Dortmund to force a move. Dembele was only briefly with the German side, as he was bought early on after mere 29 matches with Stade Rennais, where he scored 12 goals and made five assists.

In the black and yellow shirt, he returned 10 goals and 22 assists in 50 games. His Barca return of 40 goals and 43 assists in 185 games isn't abysmal, but the issue was the frequent controversies regarding Dembele and the overall unprofessionalism. Dembele was paid €35,000,000 by BVB, and Barca gave out €135,000,000 but still earned a €50,000,000 deal for him in 2023 when he joined PSG.

#2 Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool to Barcelona) – €122,000,000

Rarely do players with such high transfer fees end up being nomadic, but Philippe Coutinho changed five clubs after Barcelona gave Liverpool a massive profit. A profit that probably rescued LFC from the big trophy drought as the Premier League and the CL triumphs came quickly after.

For Barcelona it was a miss, the player Liverpool bought for €13,000,000 in 2013 from Inter was resold in the winter of 2018 for a massive €135,000,000 that could've been even higher. The Brazilian was amazing at Anfield Roud, scoring 54 goals and making 43 assists in 201 matches. For Barca, in 106 games the return was just 25 goals and 14 assists.

#1 Neymar (Barcelona to PSG) – €134,000,000

The biggest original fee of the club turning a profit and still the biggest profit in all football transfers ever! That’s not that surprising considering Neymar is still the most expensive player ever. And on a cumulative level. Ney was a teenage sensation at Santos, a club for which he has still played the most games - 225 compared to 186 in Barcelona and only 173 in Paris. Even though he spent five seasons in Brazil, four with Barcelona, and six with Paris Saint-Germain. Injuries impaired him - or he did it to himself, depending on how you view it - but Barca couldn't be happier.