Ronaldo, Neymar, Zlatan: The 25 most overpriced transfers for forwards in football history | OneFootball

Darwin Nunez is the name on everybody’s lips right now after completing a move to Liverpool for an initial fee of £64 million this week.

According to the BBC, the fee paid by the Premier League giants could rise to £85 million, which would see them shatter the previous high watermark of £75 million that they forked out for Virgil van Dijk.

All in all, it’s a transfer fee that has turned thousands upon thousands of heads with some fans arguing that Liverpool have paid over the odds for a player yet to prove themselves at the highest level on a consistent basis.

Nunez signs for Liverpool

Truth be told, the ‘look, Liverpool are just like Manchester City’ narrative is pretty darn flimsy, but there’s no denying that the Reds have put their money where their mouth is in a summer that will see them lose Sadio Mane.

And time will ultimately tell whether Nunez – who put pen to paper on a six-year deal – will prove to be an investment too far for Jurgen Klopp’s men as he starts to plot his adaptation to Premier League football.

However, regardless of how things might actually turn out on the pitch, the simple fact of the matter is that the Nunez deal isn’t as overpriced as some people are making it out to be from an objective point of view too.

The most overpriced transfers

And we know that because the data gurus at Transfermakt have a brilliant tool where you can compare the fee paid for a player against their estimated transfer value at the time of the move.

In other words, you can statistically work out how ‘overpriced’ or ‘underpriced’ a move really was, and Liverpool’s swoop for Nunez is only ranked as the 26th-most overpriced deal for a forward in football history.

That’s not exactly the bum deal that some fans are suggesting that it is, right?

Well, yes, but let’s look at the wider list to gain a little bit more context because overpaying for a player isn’t an automatic indictment of a transfer because sometimes it can be worth spending over the odds.

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You only have to look at the fact that Virgil van Dijk’s move to Liverpool is technically one of the most overpriced moves in history – and it was received as such at the time – to see that it really can be worthwhile in the long run.

The 25 most overpriced forwards in history

And what the data outlines as the 25 most overpriced moves for male forwards in football history really is a mottled cocktail of success stories and crushing failures, so be sure to check it out down below:

25. Julian Draxler (Schalke to Wolfsburg) – £18.90 million difference

Transfer fee: £38.70 million

Market value at the time: £19.80 million

24. Sadio Mane (Southampton to Liverpool) – £19.08 million difference

Transfer fee: £37.08 million

Market value at the time: £18.00 million

=22. Patrik Schick (Sampdoria to AS Roma) – £19.80 million difference

Transfer fee: £37.80 million

Market value at the time: £18.00 million

=22. Leroy Sane (Schalke to Manchester City) – £19.80 million difference

Transfer fee: £46.80 million

Market value at the time: £27.00 million

21. Raheem Sterling (Liverpool to Manchester City) – £21.33 million difference

Transfer fee: £57.33 million

Market value at the time: £36.00 million

20. Hulk (Zenit St. Petersburg to Shanghai SIPG) – £21.42 million difference

Transfer fee: £50.22 million

Market value at the time: £28.80 million

=18. Michy Batshuayi (Marseille to Chelsea) – £21.60 million difference

Transfer fee: £35.10 million

Market value at the time: £13.50 million

=18. Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad to Atletico Madrid) – £21.60 million difference

Transfer fee: £48.60 million

Market value at the time: £27.00 million

17. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan to Barcelona) – £22.05 million difference

Transfer fee: £62.55 million

Market value at the time: £40.50 million

=15. Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid to Manchester United) – £22.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £67.50 million

Market value at the time: £45.00 million

=15. Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli to Juventus) – £22.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £81.00 million

Market value at the time: £58.50 million

14. Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid to Chelsea) – £23.40 million difference

Transfer fee: £59.40 million

Market value at the time: £36.00 million

13. Christian Benteke (Aston Villa to Liverpool) – £23.85 million difference

Transfer fee: £41.85 million

Market value at the time: £18.00 million

12. Luis Suarez (Liverpool to Barcelona) – £26.75 million difference

Transfer fee: £73.55 million

Market value at the time: £46.80 million

11. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United to Real Madrid) – £30.60 million difference

Transfer fee: £84.60 million

Market value at the time: £54.00 million

10. Romelu Lukaku (Everton to Manchester United) – £31.23 million difference

Transfer fee: £76.23 million

Market value at the time: £45.00 million

9. Victor Osimhen (Lille to Napoli) – £31.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £67.50 million

Market value at the time: £36.00 million

8. Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid) – £32.40 million difference

Transfer fee: £90.90 million

Market value at the time: £58.50 million

7. Neymar (Santos to Barcelona) – £34.20 million difference

Transfer fee: £79.20 million

Market value at the time: £45.00 million

6. Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool to Barcelona) – £40.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £121.50 million

Market value at the time: £81.00 million

5. Jack Grealish (Aston Villa to Manchester City) – £47.25 million difference

Transfer fee: £105.75 million

Market value at the time: £58.50 million

4. Joao Felix (Benfica to Atletico Madrid) – £51.48 million difference

Transfer fee: £114.48 million

Market value at the time: £63.00 million

3. Kylian Mbappe (AS Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain) – £54.00 million difference

Transfer fee: £162.00 million

Market value at the time: £108.00 million

2. Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona) – £96.30 million difference

Transfer fee: £126.00 million

Market value at the time: £29.70 million

1. Neymar (Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain) – £109.80 million difference

Transfer fee: £199.80 million

Market value at the time: £90.00 million

Both success and failure

Talk about a mixed bag!

To say that Real Madrid paying over the odds for Ronaldo, PSG overspending on Mbappe and Barcelona breaking the bank for Suarez were worth the pennies would be the mother of all understatements.

But there’s no denying Liverpool, Chelsea and Barcelona flushed a lot of money down the toilet by paying way, way over the odds for Benteke, Morata and Coutinho.

It was also inevitable that the most expensive transfers in history made the cut almost by default with the post-Neymar inflation in fees seeing the likes of Dembele and Felix moving for over £100 million.

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As such, it just goes to show that paying above a player’s transfer fee to get them on the books is a massive gamble that can either fall flat on its face or turn out to be an absolute masterstroke.

And while the stats go to show that Liverpool haven’t thrown away as much money as some fans will have you believe, Kopites will just have to hope that signing Nunez turns out to be an example of the latter.