In the good old days, football was played by toffs with big moustaches, who called it “soccer” to differentiate it from “rugger”. Then the oiks got involved, and they wanted paying. And with professionalism came transfer fees.
The first transfer fee paid in Britain was a whopping £100 as Willie Groves moved from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa in 1893. The following year, there was uproar as Alf Common went from Sunderland to Middlesbrough for £1,000. And the swinging Sixties saw Denis Law head from Manchester City to Torino for £100,000.
But it took until this day in 1979 for the million-pound barrier to be broken in Britain, when Trevor Francis moved from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest. (Francis wasn't the world's first million-pound footballer; that honour goes to Italian Giuseppe Savoldi, who went from Bologna to Napoli for two billion lira which, at the time, was £1.2m.)
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Forest's manager, Brian Clough, claimed the fee was £999,999, but, along with taxes, fees and other obscure expenses that come along with football transfers, the actual amount paid was £1.18m.
Many think Francis never really lived up to his potential at Forest. He spent six months out injured, but in the 50 appearances he made, he scored 22 goals. And in the 1979 European Cup Final, it was Francis' flying header that sealed a 1-0 victory over Malmo, earning Forest their first European Cup.
The advent of the Premier League and its multi-million-pound broadcast deals (the current deal, from 2019-2022, is worth some £1.6bn per season to premiership clubs) left the game awash with money. And that has led to rampant transfer-fee inflation. In 1992, seven years after the Premier League was formed, Nicolas Anelka left Arsenal for Real Madrid for £22.5m. In 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo fetched £80m for Manchester United, again from Real Madrid.
In these days of undisclosed fees, it can be difficult to keep track of who went where for what. At the time of writing, however, the most expensive player playing in England is Manchester United's French midfielder Paul Pogba, who cost around £90m when he transferred from Italian club Juventus in 2016. The most expensive player ever sold by an English club is Philippe Coutinho, who went from Liverpool to Barcelona in 2018 for a reported £105m.
-
BoE: Millions of mortgage borrowers will be hit with higher repayments next yearNews Higher interest rates are yet to fully hit households and monthly mortgage repayments will rise between £200 and £1,000 – how much will your home loan go up by?
-
Halifax: House prices rise for the second consecutive month
UK house prices rose again in November, suggesting a resilient property market amid economic turmoil in the past year- are we heading for a crash?
-
31 August 1957: the Federation of Malaya declares independence from the UK
Features On this day in 1957, after ten years of preparation, the Federation of Malaya became an independent nation.
-
13 April 1960: the first satellite navigation system is launched
Features On this day in 1960, Nasa sent the Transit 1B satellite into orbit to provide positioning for the US Navy’s fleet of Polaris ballistic missile submarines.
-
9 April 1838: National Gallery opens in Trafalgar Square
Features On this day in 1838, William Wilkins’ new National Gallery building in Trafalgar Square opened to the public.
-
3 March 1962: British Antarctic Territory is created
Features On this day in 1962, Britain formed the British Antarctic Territory administered from the Falkland Islands.
-
10 March 2000: the dotcom bubble peaks
Features Tech mania fanned by the dawning of the internet age inflated the dotcom bubble to maximum extent, on this day in 2000.
-
9 March 1776: Adam Smith publishes 'The Wealth of Nations'
Features On this day in 1776, Adam Smith, the “father of modern economics”, published his hugely influential book The Wealth of Nations.
-
8 March 1817: the New York Stock Exchange is formed
Features On this day in 1817, a group of brokers moved out of a New York coffee house to form what would become the biggest stock exchange in the world.
-
7 March 1969: Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Victoria Line
Features On this day in 1969, Queen Elizabeth II took only her second trip on the tube to officially open the underground’s newest line – the Victoria Line.
