A Country's Most Expensive Footballer

Dawid Janczyk is the most expensive Pole - he cost €4.2 million when he transferred to CSKA Moscow last summer.

Ireland-Robbie Keane I guess?

For Scotland it's between Craig Gordon and Alan Hutton hahaha

Artur Boruc will become the most expensive Pole this summer.

Veron is prolly the most expensive Argentine.

Figo must still be the most expensive Portuguese footballer? Pretty sure Ronaldo would blow him out of the water now but at the same time Roy Keane at his peak would have gone for more than Robbie.

Shevfuckingchenko.

ohhh yeah, figo. that'd make sense.

re: veron, how much did he go for? remember that i am only talknig about single-transfer fees, not combined, because if it's combined then anelka is the most expensive, not zidane.

who is the most expensive brazilian?

i think Crespo was the most expensive Argie at 35 million english pounds.

Vieri for Italy?

1. Zinedine Zidane: Juventus to Real Madrid - 45.62 million GBP (2001)
2. Luis Figo: Barcelona to Real Madrid - 37 mil (2000)
3. Hernan Crespo: Parma to Lazio - 35.5 mil (2000)
4. Gianluigi Buffon: Parma to Juventus - 32.6 mil (2001)
5. Christian Vieri: Lazio to Inter - 32 mil (1999)
6. Shevchenko
7. Ferdinand
8. Gaizka Mendieta: Valencia to Lazio - 29 mil (2001)
9. Ronaldo: Inter to Real Madrid - 28.49 mil (2002)
10. Veron

and to fill in those gaps.

1. Andriy Shevchenko: AC Milan to Chelsea - 30 million GBP (2006)
2. Rio Ferdinand: Leeds to Manchester United - 29.1 mil (2002)
3. Juan Sebastian Veron: Lazio to Manchester United - 28.1 mil (2001)

i think the most expensive brazilian is in fact ronaldo from inter to real madrid, for something like 30m pounds

well xpost

Buffoon cost more than Vieri, eh? well shit me.

Interesting 2000-2002 cluster formation. Them were crazy times. Messi, Kaka or Ronaldo would blow that now.

WTF happened in 2002 or therabouts that ended these sorts of ridiculous transfers again?

£29m for Mendieta is hilarious considering he was playing for Middlebrough a couple of years later.

For Scotland it's between Craig Gordon and Alan Hutton hahaha

Huttoninho wins when you add on the extras. Well seeing Daniel Levy used to work for Rangers.

£29m for Mendieta is hilarious considering this man a year earlier got nutmegged by Chris Powell.

The most expensive Chilean is the central defender Arturo Vidal who cost Bayer Leverkusen £8 million last summer.

they called it the "transfer bubble" and it lasted from something liek 1999-2002. the highest fee since has been.. wait for it... shevchenko. oh yes.

xxxpost

yeah, I think anelka is the most expensive player in history if you combine all his transfers (around 130 million €).

the internet is strangely reticent when it cmes to Latvian transfer fees. the highest I can find is the 800k Southampton paid for Marians Parhars, the Latvian Michael Owen (ie misses whole seasons through injury).

According to Wikipedia, Ruud Van Nistelrooy cost Man Utd £30m - is that right?

I think the highest fee paid for a Japanese player is Hidetoshi Nakata, from Roma to Parma for 19m

for nistelrooy, i am seeing 19m, not 30m?

Sorry, I didn't notice that Euro sign.

whoa, forget robbie keane, damien duff went form blackburn to chelsea for 17m! wait, are they from the same ireland?

I think everyone in the world has just forgotten about Damien Duff.

poor old duffer.

Aye it was meant to be more then he fucked his knee in training and Man took a back seat then renegotiated once he was fit again.

xpost re Rude Van Man

Man = Man Utd

The first Man, that is.

"He might be the next George Best. He's not George Best of course, no-one is. And it's a different Ireland."

first two world record transfer fees:

1905 Alf Common - Sunderland - Middlesbrough £1,000
1922 Syd Puddefoot - West Ham - Falkirk £5,000

there were none of your Van Nistelrooys back then. proper footballers with proper names.

1922 Panini sticker album must have had some comedy names.

When I saw Ferdinand #1 English, I immediately thought of Les not Rio. Don't know if that's a failing on my part or Rio's.

wikipedia has Nedved going to Juve for 40 mil euros. how much is that in proper money? would that not break into Pete's top 10?

1922 Panini sticker album must have had some comedy names.

Mussolini?

Here's what I got so far...

Argentina - Hernan Crespo
Brazil - Ronaldo
Bulgaria - Dimitar Berbatov
Cameroon - Samuel Eto'o
Chile - Arturo Vidal
Czech Republic - Pavel Nedved
England - Rio Ferdinand
France - Zinedine Zidane
Ghana - Mickael Essien
Holland - Arjen Robben
Ireland - Damien Duff
Italy - Gianluigi Buffon
Ivory Coast - Didier Drogba
Japan - Hidetoshi Nakata
Mali - Mahamadou Diarra
Poland - Dawid Janczyk
Portugal - Luis Figo
Scotland - Craig Gordon/Alan Hutton
Spain - Sergio Ramos
Spain (Basque) - Gaizka Mendieta
Ukraine - Andriy Shevchenko

A list I found has Nedved at £25.5m, putting him at 12th ever.

The list I found, btw: http://www.footballtransfers.info/transfers/rectrans.php

Owen Hargreaves - most expensive Canadian.

Does he count? I'd say it's grey area... as a Canadian I'd say he's English. He plays for them, not us. And boy am I gutted about it. See also: Jonathan de Guzman.

anyone from Sweden beat Ibrahimovic's 25 mil euros?

Keith Gillespie plus change = £7M Andy Cole, does that make him the most expensive Norn Irish?

I'm assuming its gotta be Beckham by far in the US.

Welsh - bellamy or bale?

Duffer, 17m, jesus of course.

He actually looks sort of like he may be on some sort of way back, at the moment. Not to his best perhaps, but here's hoping.

It's a shame as around the time of the 2002 World Cup he was incredible.

Ooh, hard to say on bellamny vs. bale. one's 7.5, and the other's 5 OR 10.

jon, i'm more wondering about the player's nationality, not where he went, and the transfer fee, not the salary-- beckham moved on a free transfer and is english.

Bale might well go for more later down the line.

Most expensive Aussie footballer is kind of a surprise!

though admittedly he is from New Jersey, Umbria

and he plays for the italian national team

And Bellamy as 7.5

Aye it was meant to be more then he fucked his knee in training and Man took a back seat then renegotiated once he was fit again.
xpost re Rude Van Man

I don't think it was meant to be more. He was going to go to Old Trafford at the end of the 99/00 season for about £17 million, I think, then he did his knee in, so they put the deal on ice for a year, and then signed for pretty much the same amount. At least that's how I remember it.

Doesn't Rossi play for the Italian side? Or does he play for the USA side?

italian u-21s

he has "shunned" all offers to play for the US

i think that makes him not applicable :(

An interesting (maybe) note to Drogba's status as most expensive Ivorian: he's Africa's most expensive player too.

No in fact he was, but Essien since?

Essien costing more than Drogba is a joke anyway.

i have added so many to this list since asking the same question on football manager forums :P

why is essien costing more than drogba a joke?

Cobi Jones would have gone for millions in today's market.

Who is the most expensive Brazilian bought by a Scottish team?

why is essien costing more than drogba a joke?
Drogba is like a bajillion times better?

Are you asking, like, trivia-style, or do you not know? Because I have no idea

Trivia style

the only Brazilian i can think of even playing in Scotland is Juninho

Who is the most expensive Brazilian bought by a Scottish team?

Yikes! This has to be a trick question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Scheidt

Rafael Felipe Scheidt(born February 10, 1976 in Porto Alegre, Brazil) is a Brazilian footballer who most recently played for Botafogo. He was signed by the John Barnes/Kenny Dalglish management of Celtic from Grêmio for £5m and failed to make an impact. Plagued by injury and finding it hard to settle he started one game in the 1999-00 in Scottish football and was let out on loan to Corinthians by Martin O'Neill after just three appearances. He also has three caps for Brazil. He became known by Celtic Fans as "Rafael Shite".

In 2006 Scheidt was released by Botafogo.

lol

Still not as bad as £12m for Flo mind you

He also has three caps for Brazil.

having a cap for Brazil means that you are Brazilian and that you stuck around in Brazil for a while before fleeing to Europe. nearly everyone in Brazil has a cap. i wonder how many shit players have been bought by European teams because some moron thought "Well, if he's good enough to play for Brazil...[in a friendly vs Bolivia]".

uh oh, jim! apparently marcelo salas, chilean striker, went for over 12m many years ago!

Isn't Eduardo the most expensive Croatian, if he counts? Although I guess Modric will go for more in the summer. Egypt = Mido??

my memory doesn't seem able to get to grips with the fact that Eduardo is Croatian and to assimilate that information.

well he was born in Brazil

thanks dude.

i guess country of birth got kyboshed in favour of country represented in the Owen Hargreaves affair.

But is declared for Croatia, which is technically the criterium I am using (hence no Hargraves/Rossi for Canada/USA)

err, xpost

So, here's an insanely long, updated list after some time-wasting:

COUNTRY PLAYER OR???
Angola - Manucho
Argentina - Hernan Crespo
Australia - Mark Bresciano
Belarus - Aliaksandr Hleb
Belgium - Daniel Van Buyten Vincent Kompany
Brazil - Ronaldo
Bulgaria - Dimitar Berbatov
Cameroon - Samuel Eto'o
Chile - Marcelo Salas
Colombia - Juan Pablo Angel Ivan Cordova
Croatia - Eduardo
Cyprus - Michalis Constantinou
Czech Republic - Pavel Nedved
Denmark - Jesper Grønkjær
Egypt - Mido
England - Rio Ferdinand Wayne Rooney
Finland - Mikael Forsell
France - Zinedine Zidane
Germany - Miroslav Klose Jorg Heinrich
Ghana - Mickael Essien
Greece - Georgios Samaras
Iceland - Eidur Gudjohnsen
Ireland - Damien Duff
Italy - Gianluigi Buffon
Ivory Coast - Didier Drogba
Japan - Hidetoshi Nakata
Lichtenstein - Mario Frick
Mali - Mahamadou Diarra
Mexico - Nery Castillo
Montenegro - Dejan Savicevic At the time, was Yugoslavia.
Nigeria - John Obi Mikel martins, yakubu, or okocha
Northern Ireland - Keith Gillespie David Healy, Steven Davis
Norway - Tore Andre Flo
Paraguay - Oscar Cardozo
Poland - Dawid Janczyk
Portugal - Luis Figo
Romania - Adrian Mutu
Russia - Andrei Kanchelskis
Scotland - Craig Gordon/Alan Hutton
Serbia - Nemanja Vidic
Slovakia - Martin Skrtel
South Korea - Ji-Sung Park
Spain - Sergio Ramos
Spain (Basque) - Gaizka Mendieta
Sweden - Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The Netherlands - Arjen Robben Marc Overmars
Togo - Emmanuel Adebayor
Trinidad and Tobago - Dwight Yorke
Turkey - Fatih Tekke
Ukraine - Andriy Shevchenko
Uruguay - Diego Forlan Alvaro Recoba
USA - Tim Howard Claudio Reyna
Zimbabwe - Benjani

ugh, let me try that again. i hope this doesn't break the site.

COUNTRY		PLAYER	OR???

Angola	-	Manucho	

Argentina	-	Hernan Crespo 	

Australia	-	Mark Bresciano	

Belarus	-	Aliaksandr Hleb	

Belgium	-	Daniel Van Buyten	Vincent Kompany

Brazil	-	Ronaldo 	

Bulgaria	-	Dimitar Berbatov	

Cameroon	-	Samuel Eto'o 	

Chile	-	Marcelo Salas	

Colombia	-	Juan Pablo Angel	Ivan Cordova

Croatia	-	Eduardo	

Cyprus	-	Michalis Constantinou	

Czech Republic	-	Pavel Nedved 	

Denmark	-	Jesper Grønkjær	

Egypt	-	Mido	

England	-	Rio Ferdinand 	Wayne Rooney

Finland	-	Mikael Forsell	

France	-	Zinedine Zidane 	

Germany	-	Miroslav Klose	Jorg Heinrich

Ghana	-	Mickael Essien 	

Greece	-	Georgios Samaras	

Iceland	-	Eidur Gudjohnsen	

Ireland	-	Damien Duff 	

Italy	-	Gianluigi Buffon 	

Ivory Coast	-	Didier Drogba 	

Japan	-	Hidetoshi Nakata 	

Lichtenstein	-	Mario Frick	

Mali	-	Mahamadou Diarra 	

Mexico	-	Nery Castillo	

Montenegro	-	Dejan Savicevic	At the time, was Yugoslavia.

Nigeria	-	John Obi Mikel	martins, yakubu, or okocha

Northern Ireland	-	Keith Gillespie	David Healy, Steven Davis

Norway	-	Tore Andre Flo	

Paraguay	-	Oscar Cardozo	

Poland	-	Dawid Janczyk	

Portugal	-	Luis Figo 	

Romania	-	Adrian Mutu	

Russia	-	Andrei Kanchelskis	

Scotland	-	Craig Gordon/Alan Hutton	

Serbia	-	Nemanja Vidic	

Slovakia	-	Martin Skrtel	

South Korea	-	Ji-Sung Park	

Spain	-	Sergio Ramos 	

Spain (Basque)	-	Gaizka Mendieta 	

Sweden	-	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	

The Netherlands	-	Arjen Robben 	Marc Overmars

Togo	-	Emmanuel Adebayor	

Trinidad and Tobago	-	Dwight Yorke	

Turkey	-	Fatih Tekke	

Ukraine	-	Andriy Shevchenko 	

Uruguay	-	Diego Forlan	Alvaro Recoba

USA	-	Tim Howard	Claudio Reyna

Zimbabwe	-	Benjani	

BAHHHHHHH HUMBUG

Once more with £££s so we can work out the most worthless and the most overpriced nations in teh world.

RE: USA

Eddie Johnson went to Fulham last month for approximately the same £3 million as Tim Howard, so you can scratch Reyna off that list.

In fact, Reyna's transfer to Rangers (which was the highest value move he ever made) cost less than Beasley to Rangers, Adu to Benfica, or Dempsey to Fulham.

The Johnson fee may actually go a little higher than that, if he scores some goals.

I'd guess that Jozy Altidore might actually be the highest value USA player, as evidently a £4 million+ offer was turned down for him.

his move FROM rangers to sunderland was £4.5m, though...?

Jesus, I thought that number was the dollar conversion.

What an outrageous ripoff!

at the time tied the record for sunderland's biggest payouts!

John Hartson - to Wimbledon for £7m

La la la not listening

According to the Guardian podcast the other day - over a thousand Brazilians left Brazil to play football abraod professionally last season. I find that unbelievable, does it sound right?

I would still like to know who the highest paid Canadian is. Any guesses?

Paul Peschisolido, £1.1 million, WBA to Fulham, 1997

At a guess.

What about less football-famous countries, like, who's the most expensive Luxembourgian? Sicilian?

-- Will M., Friday, 8 February 2008 15:12 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Sicily isn't, sadly, a nation state, but I believe the correct answer to this would be Francesco Coco, £14 million, AC Milan to Inter in the early 00s.

How did Rooney creep into this list? I can't remember exactly how much he cost, but I think it was somewhere between £20m and £25m, definitely well short of Rio Ferdinand.

Hargreaves doesn't count as a Canadian? He's not Conrad Black, despite being such a shit to the CSA.

I would expect that Jonathan de Guzman will shatter Pescosolido's record, but I read that he has decided to pretend to be Dutch, so he's in the Hargreaves category now. Poor Canada, he would be one of the top three or so players in CONCACAF.

Tomasz Radzinski

signed for Belgian giants Anderlecht for whom he scored 57 goals in 90 appearances – including five Champions League strikes in his last season with the Belgian champions - before moving to Everton for around £4.5 million; the highest transfer fee paid for a Canadian up to that time.

Polish born but he's as Canadian as Hargreaves is English.

Graeme Le Saux, the Channel Islands