Fernando Torres 2007, after signing for a club record transfer fee. He marked his first season at Anfield by being Liverpool's first player since Robbie Fowler in the 1995–96 season to score more than 20 league goals in a season. The most prolific goalscoring spell of his career, he became the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals. He was named in the FIFA World XI in 2008 and 2009. Torres left the club in January 2011 to join Chelsea for a British record transfer fee of £50 million, which made him the most expensive Spanish player in history.
Progression of the British football transfer fee record completed on 1 July 2009, setting not only a new British transfer record, but also a new world record (either in pounds or euros). In turn, that record was broken on 1 September 2013 when Real announced that their £85.3 million (€100 million) purchase of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur had been completed. This record was broken on 8 August 2016, when Manchester United signed Paul Pogba from Juventus for a fee of £89 million, and again on 6 January 2018, when Philippe Coutinho moved to Barcelona from Liverpool for a reported initial fee of £106 million, which could rise