Rumours are abound of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid this summer and, were it to happen, he would likely command a fee close to his world record £80million transfer to Spain from Manchester United.
Whether it would exceed that enormous amount paid by the Santiago Bernabeu club in 2009 is up for debate, but it would certainly be expensive.
In fact, with the spectre of Financial Fair Play on the horizon, it is questionable as to whether any transfer will ever surpass the record.
GMF decided to scour the world to find the players that could be candidates to break Ronaldo’s record fee, or at least come close to it – five players that could conceivably be the next transfer blockbusters.
We aren’t saying these transfers are definitely going to happen, or that they will definitely break the record; we’re just saying they have the potential to leave football fans open-mouthed at the scale of the financials.
So, here they are:
Gareth Bale
The Spurs winger has been setting the Premier League alight in recent weeks and his price is rising with every match-winner wondergoal he scores. It is a shame that Tottenham Hotspur are a club that do not possess the financial clout to resist huge bids for their best players.
Bale is proving to be almost unstoppable when on his game and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is famous for getting every last penny out of the buying cliubs that are interested. Transfer fess from £70million to £50million have been mooted for the Wales international, so you know it will be big when he does eventually leave.
Neymar
Brazil’s young hope has been getting quite a billing over the past two years and it is all geared towards getting as lucrative a deal as possible when he makes his eventual move to Europe.
His club Santos cannot boast the financial power of Europe’s bigger clubs, so his first move is unlikely to be his biggest. If he progresses, as many believe he is capable, his second move could well command an astronomical fee.
Wayne Rooney
Paris St Germain are reported to be retaining an interest in the England forward, who will be entering the final two years of his Manchester United contract at the end of the season.
The Qatar-backed Ligue 1 club have serious financial clout and it would likely take much of it to persuade Rooney to move away from Old Trafford. Rooney’s commercial value makes him an extremely valuable asset even before his contribution on the pitch is considered; he is the star of Roy Hodgson’s Three Lions team and faces up numerous products.
All of which make his value to United extremely high and drive up what would already be significant price.
Jack Wilshere
Arsenal fans will not want to envisage their golden boy leaving Emirates Stadium at any time in the future, but star men departing the Gunners has become so regular an occurrence in the recent past that it would be foolish to dismiss it ever happening.
If Rooney is the current face of the England side, Wilshere is undoubtedly the successor. Arsene Wenger is one of many to say he could be one of the world’s best eventually so a transfer fee for him will have to be huge.
The fact that he is still very young and is yet to hit his prime, added to the improving financial power of the Gunners, mean his stock, and price tag, are only going to be rising.
Juan Mata
The Spaniard has been sensational since he moved to Chelsea from Valencia in 2011 and has been improving ever since. The Blues have been going through some troubled times recently and do not have the cushion of last year’s Champions League triumph to remedy a poor Premier League season.
If the unrest causes them to fail more often, then players like Mata could well decide they want a new challenge. However, the presence of Roman Abramovich means they are unlikely to ever have to sell a player and it would take a large pile of cash to convince him to part company with one of his most prized charges.
Mata is surely the most prized of those, except for maybe Eden Hazard, and his age, alongside his supreme talent, would likely mean he would cost a significant amount of money.
Which other players do you think could draw record-breaking transfer fees in the future? Leave a comment below to let us know…
