Who makes the Serie A most expensive XI? | OneFootball

If his move to Juventus goes through, Cristiano Ronaldo will become the most expensive player in Serie A history.

That got us thinking, what would the most expensive line-up in Serie A history look like?

Italian football was flush with money during the 1990s and early 2000s meaning, unlike other leagues, a few of the enormous deals made by Italian clubs were actually well over a decade ago.

And so we present, pre-Ronaldo, the most expensive Serie A team ever assembled.

Commanding just shy of €40m, there is no place for Juventus legend Pavel Nedved or recent Inter signing Radja Nainggolan.

Deals taking Paulo Dybala and Federico Bernadeschi to Juventus also cost €40m but we can’t squeeze everyone in and João Mario‘s move to Inter allowed us to have a slightly more balanced side. The Portuguese isn’t Inter’s only representative, with Christian Vieri up front.

Quite incredibly six of these transfers happened before 2003. Signed by AC Milan for €42m in 2001, Rui Costa is still the club’s joint-record transfer. They only equalled his fee last year when signing Leonardo Bonucci from Juventus.

Lazio had the same approach in the early 2000s, spending €48m on Gaizka Mendieta in 2001, way before fees like that were cool. That transfer was just a year after their €57m purchase of Hernan Crespo.

Juventus signed Gianluigi Buffon and Lilian Thuram in the summer of 2001 too and the Bianconeri dominate the more modern additions to the side.

Douglas Costa and João Cancelo have officially become Juventus players this summer while Gonzalo Higuaín has been at the club for two seasons.

Next? That’ll be Ronaldo, of course.

The Portuguese is expected to join the Old Lady in a move worth over €100m.