15 clubs we can’t believe have never spent £50m on a signing

Manchester United are about to spend £50m on Andrey Santos and we’re all going to move on like nothing has happened.

In today’s inflated transfer market, £50m is the going rate for decent but unspectacular Premier League players. Fees have been warped by the outrageous sums spent at the top end on nine-figure players like Elliot Anderson and Sandro Tonali this year, or Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz last year.

And yet some clubs we’d class as fairly reputable are still yet to make a signing for a fee equating to £50m in their history.

For example, even AC Milan have only just gone beyond that milestone to break their transfer record on Goncalo Ramos from PSG.

Can you imagine Andrey Santos being your record signing? For these clubs, at £50m, he would have been…

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund’s reputation is more one of a club that buys low and sells high, but their regular participation in the Champions League makes them the kind of club you could have imagined having a £50m+ spend at some point.

But their record signing is Ousmane Dembele at €35m. Fittingly, he also became their record sale when he moved on to Barcelona a year later.

Dembele could be surpassed as Dortmund’s record signing depending on the add-ons from their move for Jobe Bellingham last year, but that would still only be up to a maximum price of €38m (£32m).

Roma

Roma have been restricted by a UEFA settlement agreement – like the one that’s just been imposed on Newcastle – over the past few years, limiting their ability to spend big.

It’s led to them picking up valuable free agents like Paulo Dybala in 2022, but their record signing remains Patrik Schick, who joined them in 2017 for a fee that was roughly the equivalent of £39m.

The fact that Schick struggled at Roma, with only five Serie A goals from 46 games, may have put them off spending big for a while regardless of any UEFA restrictions.

Monaco

While the bulk of big spending in Ligue 1 is done by PSG, there was a time not so long ago when Monaco were assembling their own star-studded squad.

They made their two biggest signings ever in the summer of 2013, spending €45m for James Rodriguez and €43m for Radamel Falcao.

But, despite receiving one of the biggest fees ever by getting €180m for Kylian Mbappe in 2018, Monaco haven’t come particularly close to breaking the £50m barrier since.

Al-Ahli

The Saudi Pro League has become synonymous with big spending, largely led by the four clubs under Public Investment Fund control: Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, Al Hilal and Al-Ahli.

But while Al-Nassr’s record signing is Jhon Duran at £71m, Al Hilal’s is Neymar at £77.6m and Al-Ittihad’s is Moussa Diaby at £50.6m, Al-Ahli actually haven’t hit the £50m threshold yet.

Galeno is their record signing at £41m, just above Ivan Toney’s £40m move there in the same year (2024).

Guangzhou Evergrande

Before the Saudi Pro League, it was the Chinese Super League trying to make an impression with its lucrative spending.

The bubble has now burst and thus there remains only one Chinese club to have signed a player for more than £50m: Shanghai SIPG.

Oscar was the player in question with his landmark 2017 move from Chelsea for up to £60m.

We’ve picked Guangzhou Evergrande as the Chinese club we’re most surprised never spent more than £50m on a player, since they were the country’s champions for seven consecutive years between 2011 and 2017.

Chinese Super League spending was at its peak around that era, with Guangzhou breaking the Asian record on Jackson Martinez for £32m in 2015.

Three years later, they surpassed that fee to re-sign Paulinho from Barcelona, but that £44m deal remains their record spend.

Wolves

Wolves may have recently lost their Premier League status with relegation, but for a few years showed some serious ambition in the transfer market.

And with most of the higher-ranking top-flight teams in England having a £50m signing or a few to their name, we’re slightly surprised Wolves never quite got there.

Matheus Cunha is Wolves’ most expensive signing so far, having cost up to £44m to sign from Atletico Madrid.

They made a profit on that fee when selling Cunha to Manchester United in 2025.

Lyon

Lyon used to be French football’s major force before PSG, but their record signing is Moussa Niakhate from Nottingham Forest in 2024 at just £27m.

Marseille

Marseille’s most expensive signing was Vitinha (a Portuguese forward, not the current PSG midfielder) for up to €32m in 2023, but he only lasted a year at the club.

Sevilla

Like we said with Dortmund earlier, Sevilla are more of a buy low, sell high club. But the way they built up their pedigree in the 2010s could have theoretically led to some more expensive signings.

Their biggest buy, though, was Jules Kounde for an initial €25m in 2019.

Lazio

Lazio threatened to become big spenders around the turn of the century, even breaking the world transfer record to sign Hernan Crespo from Parma in 2000.

But that investment was worth £35.5m at the time and remains their biggest outlay for a player.

Under a new manager you might have missed, they are operating on a ‘net zero’ transfer budget this summer, so don’t expect that to change any time soon either.

Zenit Saint Petersburg

The exclusion of Russian clubs from UEFA competitions makes it harder for them to attract top players now, but it was once a well-paying destination.

Eight of the 10 most expensive signings in the Russian Premier League’s history have been by Zenit, but the biggest was Malcom at £41m in 2019.

Fenerbahce

Fenerbahce are flexing their financial muscles at the moment as they eye a couple of costly signings, but whereas their big rivals Galatasaray have spent more than £50m on a player before (Victor Osimhen at about £64m), they are yet to.

They broke their transfer record in January to sign Matteo Guendouzi but are about to surpass that fee to welcome Mason Greenwood – but that’ll still be for about £36m.

Valencia

If you skim through the 50 most expensive signings in La Liga history, the only one not by Barcelona, Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid was by Valencia with their capture of Goncalo Guedes in 2018.

He cost them approximately £36m to sign from PSG, but they took a hit on that fee when offloading him to Wolves in 2022.

Benfica

The four most expensive moves out of the Portuguese league have all been players leaving Benfica for more than £50m, but they haven’t reinvested on individuals at those kind of prices.

In fact, they’ve barely gone halfway to the £50m mark. Orkun Kokcu is believed to be their record signing at about £22m in 2023.

Bayer Leverkusen

Bayer Leverkusen are the only club to break Bayern Munich’s dominance in the Bundesliga in recent years and they did it with a squad assembled without any players costing £50m.

In fact, their two biggest signings – Malik Tillman and Jarell Quansah at around £35m – both signed in the years after their title win.

READ MORE: Where does Elliot Anderson now rank in the most expensive English footballers of all time?

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Premier League club’s record signing?