Fernando Torres January 2011. On 27 January 2011, Torres was the subject of a £40 million bid from Chelsea, which was rejected by Liverpool. He subsequently handed in an official transfer request to Liverpool the next day, which was rejected. Torres completed his move to Chelsea on a five-and-a-half-year contract on 31 January 2011 for an undisclosed fee reported to be £50 million, which set a new record for a British transfer and made him the sixth most expensive footballer in history. He made his Chelsea debut on 6 February 2011 in a 1–0 home defeat to former club Liverpool. On 23
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