Wearing Madrid's "Real" outfit, James Rodriguez became the fifth most expensive footballer in history. The Spanish club "Monaco" paid 80 million euros for the Colombian national team striker, according to the "Associated Press" information reported by the newspaper "Lietuvos rytas".
The summer football market noticeably heated up after the end of the World Cup in Brazil.
In 2006 and 2010, the largest player migration also began after the World Cup storms subsided.
But most of the brightest stars changed clubs only after the 2006 summer, when the World Cup ended in Germany. Ruud van Nistelrooy ("Manchester United") and Juan Antonio Reyes ("Arsenal") then moved to Madrid's "Real", while Zlatan Ibrahimovic - from Turin's "Juventus" to Milan's "Inter".
In 2010, this trend only intensified even more.
During the World Cup battles, Madrid's "Real" agreed with Lisbon's "Benfica" for the transfer of Angel di Maria.
The Spaniards announced the new player already the next morning after the Argentine national team reached the quarter-finals.
At that time, "Manchester City" executives acquired David Silva from "Valencia" and Yaya Toure from "Barcelona", thus continuing their spending spree in the player market.
Top 10 most expensive footballers in the world
- Cristiano Ronaldo 94 million euros from "Manchester United" to Madrid's "Real" in 2009.
- Gareth Bale 91 million from "Tottenham Hotspur" to Madrid's "Real" in 2013.
- Neymar 86.2 million from "Santos" to "Barcelona" in 2013.
- Luis Suarez 81 million from "Liverpool" to "Barcelona" in 2014.
- James Rodriguez 80 million from "Monaco" to Madrid's "Real" in 2014.
- Zinedine Zidane 75 million from Turin's "Juventus" to Madrid's "Real" in 2001.
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic* 70 million from Milan's "Inter" to "Barcelona" in 2009.
- Kaka 67.2 million from "AC Milan" to Madrid's "Real" in 2009.
- Edinson Cavani 64 million from "Napoli" to "Paris Saint Germain" in 2013.
- Luis Figo 61.7 million from "Barcelona" to Madrid's "Real" in 2000.
*Barcelona paid 45 million euros for Z.Ibrahimovic and also gave the player Samuel Eto'o to the Milan club, whose buyout price was estimated at 25 million euros at the time.
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