Manchester United and Real Madrid lead the way in the most money spent on expensive teenagers, but neither have spent the most on one player.
Whether you’re a real football manager or one who travels over 1000 miles to watch an Italian third division team play just because of a video game, there’s nothing better than developing a young player.
It would be nice if they all came through the youth academy, but very few teams have the luck of having a generation like the Class of 92, at Manchester United, or the steady stream of talent created by La Masia for Barcelona.
For most young players, there’s usually a transfer along the way, whether it’s before they’ve made a name for themselves or just after.
Everyone is always looking for the next wonderkid and, of course, sometimes you have to pay a lot of money for them to join your club.
United certainly had that when they signed Wayne Rooney, although the forward had already shown how good he could be in his two years at Everton.
According to a recent poll, the former England forward is the Premier League’s second best player of all time, meaning his transfer fee as a teenager was worth it.
Despite the €37 million that Sir Alex Ferguson spent for ‘Wazza,’ it’s only the third most spent by the club on a player under the age of 20, and 10th most in football history, according to Football Transfers.
10. Wayne Rooney (Everton to Man Utd, €37m, 2004)
9. Luke Shaw (Southampton to Man Utd, €37.5m, 2014)
8. Fabio Silva (Porto to Wolves, €40m, 2020)
7. Vinicius Junior (Flamengo to Real Madrid, €45m, 2018)
6. Rodrygo (Santos to Real Madrid, €45m, 2019)
5. Anthony Martial (Monaco to Man Utd, €60m, 2015)
4. Endrick (Palmeiras to Real Madrid, €72m, 2024)
3. Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax to Juventus, €85m, 2019)
2. Joao Felix (Benfica to Atletico Madrid, €126m, 2019)
1. Kylian Mbappe (Monaco to PSG, €180m, 2017)
