Just as the transfer market in Europe is bubbling with unfolding events, so are the banking halls as vaults are being opened and closed with huge amounts either coming out or inflowing into players and clubs’ accounts.

The world is at the verge of witnessing the biggest movement of money in football history when Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior moves from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain. Courtesy of 90min, the world’s largest football media platform, Sports Village Square brings to you the eight teams that have had to pay ridiculous amounts during summer transfer.

 

8. Paris Saint-Germain – Summer of 2012

Total spend: £144.5m

In their first transfer window with the Qatari owners on board, Paris Saint-Germain went all-out ahead of the 2012/13 season, spending nearly £150m on signing seven of Europe’s brightest and most experienced players.

The double swoop of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic from AC Milan was worth in excess of £55m, while the likes of Lucas Moura, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marco Verratti helped put the French side on the map.

7. Manchester United – Summer of 2016

Total spend: £147m

Last summer was a big one for Manchester United. Two of football’s biggest personalities, Jose Mourinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, joined the club, but neither are included in United’s total transfer spend.

Rather, the world’s most expensive player, Paul Pogba, as well as the additions of Armenian playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan and no-nonsense defender Eric Bailly, cost a combined fee of £147m.

 

6. Manchester City – Summer of 2015

Total spend: £147.5m

Manchester City are serial spenders when it comes to the transfer window, but even by their own lofty standards the summer of 2015 was an expensive one, as they captured five players for a combined fee of nearly £150m.

While Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne represented the bulk of the spending at nearly £100m together, Fabian Delph, Patrick Roberts and Nicolas Otamendi were hardly on the cheap side.

 

5. Barcelona – Summer of 2014

Total spend: £148m

Newly installed manager Luis Enrique was backed by the Barcelona owners to return to winning ways, following a disappointing 2013/14 campaign and the flurry of signings had the desired effect, with Barca finishing the season as treble-winners.

The main expenditure went on Luis Suarez, who cost £65m from Liverpool, while the arrivals of Claudio Bravo, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ivan Rakitic, Thomas Vermaelen and Jeremy Mathieu took the spending almost to £150m.

 

4. Real Madrid – Summer of 2013

Total spend: £148.5m

Beating Barcelona by just £500,000 to 4th spot here, Real Madrid broke the world record in September 2013 when they brought Gareth Bale to La Liga, signing a cheque for around £85m.

The Welshman was joined by Dani Carvajal, Casemiro, Isco and Asier Illarramendi, the former being the second priciest signing of that summer for Los Blancos, and the new arrivals contributed to the club’s unprecedented ‘La Decima‘ success.

 

3. Manchester United – Summer of 2014

Total spend: £149m

After the disaster of David Moyes’ stewardship the year before, Manchester United’s owners gave new boss Louis van Gaal a transfer warchest ahead of the 2014/15 season and he gladly accepted it, bringing in five major players.

The Red Devils broke a British transfer record when they acquired Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid for almost £60m, while the likes of Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind and Ander Herrera also came through the doors of Old Trafford.

 

2. Manchester City – Summer of 2017

Total spend: £202m

The Citizens find themselves this summer as having the second most expensive transfer window of all time for a club, after a number of pricey acquisitions following a somewhat disappointing campaign last year.

Kyle Walker (£45m), Benjamin Mendy (£52m), Ederson (£35m), Danilo (£26m) and Bernardo Silva (£43m) have all signed on the dotted line for Pep Guardiola’s men and the spending might not even be done yet!

1. Real Madrid – Summer of 2009

Total spend: £230m

The summer of 2009 saw Real Madrid begin a new dawn of the Galacticos era, by breaking the world record not once, but twice in a matter of week as they followed the £56m capture of Kaka with the £80m signing of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Also arriving to the Spanish capital prior to the start of the 2009/10 season were Xabi Alonso (£30m from Liverpool), Karim Benzema (£31m from Lyon) and Raul Albiol (£13.5m from Valencia).