Ecuador midfielder Moises Caicedo has ended a summer of speculation by sealing his switch to Chelsea from Brighton for a new British record transfer fee of £115m
At just 21, the Ecuadorian midfielder has already entered the record books following his £115m move from Brighton to Chelsea. Opting to head to Stamford Bridge after turning down Liverpool, it means the man who only a year ago was playing on loan at Belgian side Beerschot now holds the British transfer record.
And the fee involved also catapults him into the list of the top 10 most expensive footballers of all time, bumping Paul Pogba down to No.11. Now the question remains as to whether Chelsea’s new star will live up to the billing having been instrumental in Brighton qualifying for Europe last season.
Mirror Football has reflected on the 10 most expensive transfers of all time prior to Caicedo’s move. And we rank those who were worth the money, along with those who definitely weren’t….
Moises Caicedo explains £115m Chelsea transfer after snubbing Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp
1: Neymar £198m (Barcelona to PSG, 2017)
Six years on from the transfer that shook for the world, Neymar leaves for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia without a Ballon D’or to his name or a Champions League title with the Parisians.
There was 118 club goals, numerous moments of brilliance, five Ligue 1 titles and three Coupe de France wins – but the man charged with elevating PSG to the European glory they craved ultimately fell short of his task. It’s a brutal standard to hold him to, but then £198m is brutal money.
2: Kylian Mbappe £163m (Monaco to PSG, 2018)
A total of 212 goals in 260 games is a staggering ratio regardless of the domestic dominance of the team you’re in.
Mbappe’s star has undoubtedly shone brighter since he made his own move to Paris, but like Neymar, you sense that if there is no Champions League winners medal in their grasp by the time he inevitably heads to Real Madrid, the jigsaw will remain incomplete. On the field, Mbappe has been worth the money, but the current power struggles and transfer sagas off it could yet see him walk away a villain.
3: Philippe Coutinho £138m (Liverpool to Barcelona, 2018)
Philippe Coutinho winning three league titles and a Champions League after leaving Liverpool suggests a man who lit up the Nou Camp alongside Lionel Messi and co.
In truth, he spent one-and-a-half underwhelming years in Spain before tasting European glory on loan at Bayern Munich, returned to Barca but failed to hold down a first team place, and was eventually shipped off to Aston Villa for £17million. The Brazilian who wowed so regularly in red may argue the medals were worth the move – but that would mask the reality of a precocious talent who saw his career stall.
4: Ousmane Dembele £127m (Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona, 2017)
If a loss of form plagued Coutinho at Barcelona, then it was injury woes that did for Ousmane Dembele.
The amount of add-ons that came with the initial fee for the Frenchman underlined how the Spanish giants saw him as a star of the future, but during his six years in LaLiga, only once did he hit the 30-game mark in a league season.
He’s now joined PSG on a £43m deal, and like Coutinho, has represented a huge net loss for the Spanish giants. At 26, Dembele still has time to prove his place among the elite, as he often did in flashes in Spain, but steering clear of the treatment table will be critical.
5: Jude Bellingham £115m (Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid, 2023)
In this era of a madly inflated market, an initial £88.5m fee potentially rising to £115m represents a good price for a player with the limitless potential of Bellingham.
The early signs are good, with the England star impressing – and scoring – on his LaLiga debut at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday. To say there is a long way to go for him at the Bernabau would be a ludicrous understatement, but this is one extortionate deal that may just end up being worth every penny for Real.
6: Joao Felix £106m (Benfica to Atletico Madrid, 2019)
The 2023/24 campaign could be a defining one in the career of potentially mercurial Joao Felix.
He was 19 when he joined Atletico in a deal that made him the second most expensive teenager in history, behind Mbappe. Injury issues hampered his first two seasons before his apparent breakthrough, winning the club’s player of the year award in 2021/22. But a subsequent fallout with Diego Simeone saw him sent to Chelsea on loan last January.
The Blues have opted not to pursue a permanent move, with Felix now fighting to get back in favour under Simeone. In order to justify the fee, he needs to.
7: Enzo Fernandez £104m (Benfica to Chelsea, 2023)
One performance doesn’t make a player, especially one that cost £104 million.
But the display of Enzo Fernandez against Liverpool on Sunday was enough to excite fans that Mauricio Pochettino has the playmaker he needs to bring success back to Stamford Bridge. And the 2022 World Cup winner will soon be complimented in the middle by having Caicedo alongside him, a partnership which oozes promise.
Fernandez has shown enough to suggest he can be a long-term Premier League star. And just as well, he’s tied down to Chelsea for eight-and-a-half-years after all.
8: Antoine Griezmann £103m (Atletico Madrid to Barcelona, 2019)
There are two schools of thought over Antoine Griezmann’s spell at Barcelona.
Some viewed him as a flop whose fee unnecessarily contributed to Barca’s current financial woes before he was sent packing back to Atletico. Others argued that often deployed out of position, his displays merited far more credit that the merciless Spanish media were prepared to give him.
Griezmann is now back at Atletico for a relatively paltry £17m fee. Regardless of mitigating factors, it was stint that represented another financial disaster for Barca. There’s a theme developing here.
9: Jack Grealish £100m (Aston Villa to Manchester City, 2021)
If we were rating this move 12 months ago, the analysis would have fallen short of complimentary.
Fast forward a year, and the player who underwhelmed in his first season at the Etihad has since played a pivotal role in their 2022/23 treble. Work rate, creativity, threat – the 27-year-old now looks the player that Guardiola envisaged him being when he sanctioned the eye-watering fee to get him from Aston Villa.
The challenge for Grealish now, is to maintain standards. Should he do so, the extortionate fee will soon be forgotten.
10: Romelu Lukaku £97m (Inter Milan to Chelsea, 2021)
He scored just eight Premier League goals in his first season, was sent back to Inter Milan on loan as Chelsea played a season without a recognised striker, and then the Blues rejected the chance to have him back.
