Top 10 Most Expensive Soccer Contracts

Soccer is the most watched sport of all time. It is one of the most exciting and exhilarating sports because of the difficulty to score points and the skills shown by the athletes playing it. Due to the popularity of the sport, hiring good players is not just an ordinary task. The cream of the crop is picked among well-trained soccer athletes. These athletes usually train from childhood until they are picked to play in major leagues. Serious skills are needed to become a world famous soccer player. The price tag isn’t cheap in hiring good and competent soccer players in a team. Soccer games bring lots of advertisements and a good team will get lots of endorsements, which is why top teams bank in their players.
Here are some of the most expensive soccer contracts in the world

10. Robinho

Robinho is a 29-year old Brazilian professional footballer who is currently AC Milan’s striker. He has three transfers under his belt with a total cost of around $113.7 million, the highest of which was a transfer from Real Madrid to Manchester City in 2008, which cost around $57.5 million. Robinho started his football career with Santos FC. He was handpicked by Pele as an apparent heir. His mother, Marina da Silva Souza, was kidnapped by gunmen at her home but was later on released upon payment of ransom back when he was just starting his career.

9. Christian Vieri

Christian Vieri is a retired professional footballer who played for more than a dozen teams in his entire football career. He is hailed as one of the finest strikers in Europe. He has 4 transfers under his belt that has earned him a total of $117 million. The highest transfer offered to him was when he was given $60 million from Lazio Roma to Inter Milan in 1999.
Vieri is the all time head goal top scorer in Italian league history. During his stay with Inter, he was able to score 103 goals, which is a very impressive feat even for professional footballers. He was also awarded the Italian Footballer of the Year twice.

8. Fernando Torres

Fernando Torres, also called El Nino, is a Spanish footballer who holds the striker position for Chelsea and the national team of Spain. He was dubbed as Liverpool’s fastest player. In 2011, he joined Chelsea with a British transfer fee worth $78 million, making him the most expensive Spanish player in history.

7. Ronaldo de Lima

Ronaldo de Lima is a retired professional footballer who used to play for the Corinthians in his final year as a professional soccer player. He is considered as one of the best footballers of all time. He was transferred five times, earning him an estimated amount of $135 million. His highest transfer amount was $60.2 million when he was transferred from Inter Milan to Real Madrid in 2002. Ronaldo de Lima won the award FIFA Player of the Year three times, a feat he shares only with Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi. He is dubbed as the phenomenon for his great skills on the field.

6. Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane is an Irish Striker of the Los Angeles Galaxy. He had nine transfers in his entire career amounting to a total of $139 million. His highest transfer earned him an amount of $34.4 million. That was from Tottenham Hotspur to Liverpool in 2008. He is currently the team captain of both the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Irish National Team. He is the 14th highest scorer in the history of football and 3rd among active players. He is ranked as 11th most successful goal scorer in the Premier League.

5. Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese professional footballer who is currently the forward of Real Madrid. He has a total of only two transfers yet amounting to a total of $149.2 million with a majority of that amount coming from the transition from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009. This was his highest transfer amounting to $125.8 million. In addition, the transfer made him one of the highest paid footballers in the world. He serves as the captain of the Portuguese football team.

4. Juan Sebastian Veron

Juan Sebastian Veron is a retired Argentinian professional footballer who previously played for Chelsea as a Striker. Throughout his career, he has had six transfers amounting to $156.5 million. His highest transfer fee was when he was offered to shift from Lazio Roma to Manchester United in 2001, with a price tag of $57 million. He is the eldest son of former Argentinian striker, Juan Ramon Veron. He was chosen by Pele as part of the top 125 greatest living footballers.

3. Hernan Crespo

Hernan Crespo is a retired Argentinian striker who played for Parma in the last years of his career. In his 19 years in the game, he was able to score a total of 300 goals. Crespo had a total of four transfers amounting to $162 million. His highest paid transfer fee was when he changed teams from Parma to Lazio Roma in 2000, which amounted to $73.6 million. He has several awards under his belt such as an Olympic silver medal, a Copa Libertadores, a Premier League title and three Serie A scudetti.

2. Nicolas Anelka

Nicolas Anelka is a French professional footballer who is currently a striker for the Juventus FC. He has a total of 8 transfers throughout his career totaling around $179.5 million. The highest transfer was from Arsenal to Real Madrid in 1999, which amounted to $46.8 million. Anelka won his first honors at the Euro 2000. His career ended when he was excluded from the world cup 2000 due to comments directed to the national coach, Raymond Domenech.

1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a Swedish professional football player who is currently the striker of Paris SG. He has seven total transfers amounting to $226.2 million. His highest transfer fee came from the offer of transferring from Inter Milan to Barcelona, which amounted to $93 million. Ibrahimovic was named as the highest scorer in 2008 and 2009. He also won three straight Scudetti. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was ranked 5th in a listing of 100 best footballers in the world. In addition, Ibrahimovic is the only player who was able to accomplish a feat of scoring for six clubs in the Champions League.