Progression of the British football transfer fee record lagged behind those paid by clubs in Italy, France and Spain to take British players abroad until 1995, when Manchester United paid Newcastle United £7,000,000 for Andy Cole. The fees paid by the Premier League's top clubs began to increase at a rapid rate, with Alan Shearer commanding the first £15,000,000 fee in 1996, and the new millennium heralding the first £30,000,000 transfer, although sources differ as to whether this barrier was broken by Rio Ferdinand's move to Manchester United in 2002 or Andriy Shevchenko's transfer to Chelsea four years later for some reason, however Veron' s transfer to United
Transfer (association football) an initial fee of £20 million that rose to £27 million due to the number of appearances he made and the number of trophies he won with the club. The following tables show the highest transfer fees ever paid in euro for players and managers. The first features the top 20 most expensive transfers involving players, and contains eight transfers which broke the world transfer record: those of Neymar in 2017, Paul Pogba, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo and Hernán Crespo all broke the record. The second list shows the top 20 most expensive transfers involving managers.