Adding a slice of cucumber to a gin and tonic; a twist of black pepper on your strawberries and cream; using venison instead of beef in your Wellington. These are fresh twists on existing classics and that’s what we’re doing with this article – we think. There are loads of blogs and discussions about the most expensive signings in the world, or in English football, or by club. But we’re looking at the mega-money deals from a slightly different angle here. Here we will pinpoint the most expensive players of all time from each of the continental confederations.
There are various federations, organisations and football authorities at all sorts of levels. FIFA is the primary global one and beneath that the various continental confederations probably come next. These bodies, with Europe’s UEFA being the best-known example (to Europeans at any rate), work with the various national football federations, such as the FA, to organise rules, competitions and the calendar for club and national tournaments between their member teams.
The Confederations
Broadly based on the seven-continent model but excluding Antarctica, there are six continental confederations as below:
- UEFA, Europe – Union of European Football Associations
- CONMEBOL, South America – Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol
- CAF, Africa – Confederation of African Football
- CONCACAF, North America – Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football
- AFC, Asia – Asian Football Confederation
- OFC, Oceania – Oceania Football Confederation
CONMEBOL: Neymar Remains Football’s Most Expensive Player
There is a lot of disagreement over transfer fees and there are various reasons why this occurs. These are, chiefly, the fact that clubs frequently fail to disclose the cost of the transfer, that there are different currencies used, so exchange rates become a factor, and these change over time, and that deals frequently include add-ons. Most add-ons are performance-related, so not guaranteed, though some are, whilst others are all but assured. In addition, there are also agent fees to consider, which are a grey, murky area to say the least.
Transfers involving Neymar have been no stranger to controversial agent payments, with the deal that took him from Santos to Barcelona contested due to disputes over third-party ownership issues, payments to the player’s parents and allegations of fraud. The fee was reported as around £48m, then it was said to be closer to £15m, before a figure closer to £100m was mentioned.
It is his move from Barca to PSG that is our concern here, and that too was far from straightforward. The fee of €222m, or around £200m, was the value of his release clause and that, at least, we can be pretty sure about! This makes Neymar the most expensive player of all time and ipso facto, the most expensive CONMEBOL player ever. Note that with all the players we are looking at here, the confederation relates to the nation where the player is from, rather than the club that bought them or the one that sold them.
Brazilian Neymar moved from Barcelona to the French capital in August 2017 after complications due to La Liga believing PSG were breaching Financia Fair Play rules. There were further legal and contractual issues but, nonetheless, the deal went through and Neymar has been the world’s most expensive footballer for more than seven years now.
UEFA: PSG Splash Cash Again for Mbappé
The most expensive transfer of a UEFA-affiliated player again sees Paris Saint-Germain as the buyer, this time spending €180m to bring Kylian Mbappé to the club. Like Neymar, Mbappe was unable to help the French side to the Champions League title, though he was hugely prolific.
Despite his torrent of goals, quite how the transfer is viewed is debatable, not least because despite their best efforts and the player’s market value of around €200m, Mbappe left the French capital and headed to the Spanish one on a free transfer. Mbappe played for PSG from the summer of 2017 to the end of the 2023/24 campaign and racked up a massive 256 goals for the club.
Even so, fans and most certainly the money-men at PSG, must have wept inside, and quite possibly out, when the French ace refused to renew his contract. That enabled him to walk away on a free transfer, and earn an eye-watering salary, with Madrid more than happy to pay him a reported €600,000 a week given the lack of a transfer fee.
CAF: Flop Pepe is No 1 in Africa
PSG have bought the most expensive players in both UEFA and CONMEBOL history. Most serious football fans would have been able to guess the two players involved. However, only geeks of the highest order will be able to identify the four players who hold the remaining federation records, even though all four were signed by Premier League teams.
The most expensive African footballer of all time managed 16 PL goals in 80 games for Arsenal, including one in 20 in his final season. That man is Nicolas Pepe, for whom the Gunners departed with £72m, or around €80m, in August 2019.
Despite the very occasional flash of brilliance, the Ivory Coast international never settled in England. Recently social media posts have compared his stats to those of Jack Grealish at Man City and the comparison tells us that either Pepe wasn’t such a disaster after all, or alternatively that Grealish should be getting a lot more stick or, just maybe, that stats are not the whole story.
CONCACAF: Pulisic Tops Charts in America
Chelsea’s spending feats of the past few seasons have been on a whole new level but they have, of course, been splashing huge amounts of cash for over two decades now. In January 2019 they parted with £58m to sign US attacker Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund. The deal saw the forward loaned back to the German club before rejoining the Blues in the summer.
Pulisic spent four seasons in west London and scored just 26 goals from 145 games in all competitions. In the summer of 2023 he left, moving to Milan for just under £20m.
AFC: Korean Defender Kim Min-Jae Is Asia’s Costliest Player
Well done to anyone who identified Kim Min-jae as the player involved in the AFC’s biggest transfer.
In July 2023 Bayern Munich signed the strapping centre back from Napoli for between €50m and €58m.
OFC: Wood Puts Burnley’s Name Up in Lights
There are not many lists that see Neymar and Mbappe alongside Chris Wood. Equally, on a list of buying and selling clubs that features PSG, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund, we have Burnley.
The Clarets got a massive £25m for Kiwi Wood when Newcastle matched his buyout clause in January 2022. Five goals in 39 games was not the best return but they recouped £15m of the fee when they sold him to Forest in 2023.