Luis
Suarez may have seen his World Cup end in ignominy, but it
wasn't long after his time in Brazil that Barcelona paid what was the biggest
fee of the summer - a staggering €88m - to bring the Premier League player of
the year to Spain.
Not to be outdone by their
Clasico rivals, Real Madrid splashed out €80m on James Rodriguez, who captured the attention of the world with his
Golden Boot-winning performances in Brazil and promptly moved to the Spanish
capital from Monaco. Interestingly, this is the only transfer in the top 10 not
to include a club from England's top flight.
Manchester United smashed the British transfer record to bring Angel Di Maria to Old Trafford for €75m as part of an
unprecedented level of upheaval within the Red Devils' squad.
David Luiz will not be missed at Chelsea according to Jose
Mourinho, but Paris Saint-Germain will hope that their €49.5m outlay on the
Brazilian - the highest fee ever paid for a defender - will not go to waste.
Luiz just edges ahead of Eliaquim Mangala, who became Manchester City's big-money deal of a
more restricted summer by their standards.
Chelsea, of course, wasted
little time in reinvesting the funds, paying €44m to Atletico Madrid to bring Diego Costa to Stamford Bridge.
In seventh place is Alexis
Sanchez, who became Arsenal's
second-most expensive player when he joined from Barcelona.
Just behind him is Luke Shaw, whom Manchester United made the costliest
teenager in football history when they forked out just over €37.8m to
Southampton for his services.
Shaw's new United team-mate Ander
Herrera is ninth in the
table, with Athletic Bilbao receiving €36.5m for the midfielder.
While in 10th place - the
third deal involving Chelsea in the top 10 - is Cesc Fabregas, who joined for €36m.
The Spaniard edges out Romelu Lukaku, who departed Stamford Bridge for Everton for
€35.4m.
A number of other significant
summer moves just fall short of a place in our list. Toni Kroos and Antoine
Griezmann both cost a
fraction over €25m as they joined Real and Atletico, while Mario Mandzukic - Costa's replacement at Atleti - is down in 15th
with a fee of around €22m.
Juan Iturbe is the most expensive signing made by a Serie A
side, with Roma's new attacker placed ahead of Alvaro Morata.
Jeremy
Mathieu became the most
expensive defender ever over the age of 30 when he joined Barca, while Ciro Immobile was the priciest Borussia Dortmund arrival of the
summer at €18.5m.
Medhi Benatia makes the top 15 after his late move to Bayern
Munich in August - a deal which makes the Moroccan the most expensive
Bundesliga signing of the window.
Ivan Rakitic and Marcos
Rojo are also within the top 25,
with Mario
Balotelli edging his way
into the mix after his €20m move to Liverpool - a transfer matched in value by Danny Welbeck's dramatic late move to Arsenal.
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