The 10 most expensive players ever by total transfer fees ft. Ronaldo, Mbappe and Neymar | OneFootball

Transfer fees are becoming more and more astronomical, but what happens when the same player moves several times for big money?

Having a massive transfer fee to your name is a lot of pressure when acclimatising at your new club - especially when it ranks among the biggest of all time.

Now imagine having that same pressure on multiple occasions. It must weigh heavy on the shoulders of the player.

Here - via FourFourTwo - are the 10 most cumulatively expensive players in history.

10 Zlatan Ibrahimovic - £145 million

Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates a goal for AC Milan with his arms raised out by each side.

The recently retired Swedish international has made his way around some of the biggest clubs in world football.

Having moved between Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester United and PSG, it comes as no shock that a lot of money has been put into his services.

The biggest fee paid for the striker was the £57 million spent by Barcelona to lure him to Camp Nou.

The final three transfers of his career, to Man Utd, LA Galaxy and finally Milan were a free transfer which prevented that £145 million figure rising even more.

9 Angel Di Maria - £147.2 million

The heavy lifting in Di Maria's transfer history is done by Manchester United.

The English club spent £59.7 million on the skillful winger back in 2014, in a move that flattered to deceive.

He also had moves to PSG and Real Madrid in his career to bump his cumulative fees up by a significant amount.

This July, Di Maria completed a free transfer move from Juventus to Benfica where he will, seemingly, play the final years of his career.

8 Antoine Griezmann - £153 million

A £108 million release clause in his contract allowed the Frenchman to move to Barcelona, making up almost the entire sum of the above number.

The Spanish giants would have regretted that decision with hindsight as they eventually sold Griezmann back to Atletico Madrid only three years after paying the astronomical fee.

It means that, remarkably, Atletico have bought Griezmann on two separate occasions for far less than they sold him to Barcelona for. Now that's business.

7 Ousmane Dembele - £153 million

Again, Barcelona have a lot to do with a player's appearance on this list.

The amount of money the Catalonians have spent on transfers is a big indicator towards the financial trouble they find themselves in.

The injury-prone winger has struggled to really mark his stamp on the league, having signed for a higher fee than his international teammate, Griezmann.

Previously, Borussia Dortmund did spend around £30 million on Dembele from Rennes before selling him to Barca for more than three-times that amount.

6 Kylian Mbappe - £165.7m million

The move made from Monaco to PSG in 2018 is the only transfer fee paid for the 24-year-old to date.

He has been strongly linked with a move away from the French capital which could raise the number significantly and fire him up to the top of this list.

135 goals in 149 appearances since making his loan move permanent proves that while the fee is extraordinary, it may have also been worthwhile.

However, with just 12 months left of his PSG contract, there's also the possibility that Mbappe will leave the French capital on a free transfer and not add to his £165.7 million accumulative transfer fee.

5 Alvaro Morata - £160.8 million

Perhaps a surprise entry on the list is the striker best known for being inconsistent in front of goal.

He moved from Real Madrid to Juventus in the early stages of his career before being bought back by Los Blancos.

After one season back in Madrid, Chelsea broke their transfer record to bring him to the Premier League for around £60 million.

He was very underwhelming in England and ended up moving to Atletico Madrid, for a similar fee to the one Chelsea bought him for, astonishingly.

This summer, however, Morata looks likely to leave Atleti once again to contribute once again to his accumulative transfer fee.

Milan have been heavily linked with the Spaniard, while a move to Saudi Arabia has also been touted.

4 Philippe Coutinho - £167.9 million

It is well-known that selling Coutinho to - you guessed it - Barcelona, funded Liverpool's moves for both Alisson and Virgil van Dijk.

£142 million was the agreed price to snap up the dazzling Brazilian in the January transfer window of 2018.

His initial move to Liverpool in 2013 was for a very small fee of £7.5 million as he was still a youngster at the time, before developing into a superstar.

That nominal fee proved to be an absolute bargain as far as Liverpool were concerned. Coutinho spent five seasons at Liverpool, scoring 54 goals in 201 appearances. That's despite it coming during a fairly underwhelming era at Anfield in which they failed to win a trophy. If only he had stuck around under Jurgen Klopp a little longer...

But Coutinho has had a poor time in Spain, to say the least.

His former teammate, Steven Gerrard, signed him as Aston Villa manager for just shy of £20 million in order to end his La Liga nightmare.

3 Cristiano Ronaldo - £210.1 million

Had Ronaldo played his entire career in this generation, his cumulative transfer fee figure would be a lot higher.

His £80 million move to Real Madrid in 2009 was seen as massive, with it breaking the world record at that time. Looking back, that figure is almost measly.

Fees that are being thrown around in the modern day make this sum look paltry in comparison. Players seen as good are being touted at £80 million and above.

With Ronaldo being one of the best players ever, we can only imagine how much his club would request for his signature if he was in his prime.

Back in 2013 at the very start of his carer, United made Ronaldo the most expensive teenager in history by paying just £12 million on him from Sporting Lisbon.

2 Neymar - £248.8 million

The flamboyant Brazilian is still the most expensive player in history, in terms of one single transfer fee.

He was the first ever player to be purchased for £200 million and at the moment, remains out on his own in that regard.

The move from Barcelona to PSG rocked the football world, and even with the money involved in the game, it could be quite some time until that fee is topped.

PSG are the only team to have come close to spending as much on another player, after bringing in Mbappe from Monaco.

Has the £200 million been money well spent for Neymar? Injuries and controversies have plagued his six years at the Parc des Princes, despite his brilliant. He's still managed 118 goals in 173 appearances, winning five league titles.

1 Romelu Lukaku - £291 million

The most cumulatively expensive player in football history is the Belgian forward, Lukaku.

With his loan move to Inter Milan coming to a close, he could even be on the move once again and add to the incredible £291 million tally.

His parent club, Chelsea, have forked out close to a combined £120 million to sign the 30-year-old on two separate occasions with very little return. The second of which has been far from successful, as he returned to Italy on loan only one year later.

Lukaku has scored a combined 15 goals in 59 appearances at Stamford Bridge and it will be interesting to see if he has the opportunity to add to that tally under Mauricio Pochettino during the 2023/24 campaign.

Manchester United, Everton and Inter Milan have all parted company with large amounts of money to acquire his services in the past.

Will Lukaku move this summer?

It is yet to be seen where he will land for the upcoming season, as talks can be expected to take place with new Chelsea boss, Mauricio Pochettino.

It is unlikely he will be able to return to the San Siro for a third spell with the Italian club facing financial struggles.

With so many big-name players making the move to Saudi Arabia, could Lukaku be one of the next to make the jump? Only time will tell.

At the age of 30, Lukaku is now a real crossroads in his career. Does he remain at Chelsea and look to prove himself for a third time? That's looking increasingly unlikely with Chelsea trying to 'convince' him to leave this summer - his £350,000-per-week wages are the main reason for that.

But where does he go with those sort of wages?

Well, he has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia.

Cristiano Ronaldo set the trend earlier in 2023 but he's since been joined by the likes Karim Benzema, Ruben Neves, N'Golo Kante and Roberto Firmino as they've landed hefty paydays in the middle east.