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Most Expensive Football Team In The World

With the news that Philippe Coutinho is set to move to Barcelona for a staggering £142m, it got me thinking as to just how much money has been spent if you were to build the most expensive team in the world. So as it’s a Sunday and an F.A. Cup weekend it is the perfect opportunity in which to find out.

A couple of caveats here, I’m not just going to pick the 11 highest transfers of all time as then we would have an awfully lopsided team with something like seven attackers. What I’m going to try and do is actually build a fully functional outfit

This also means that for example I will not be having four centre backs, it needs to be the most expensive in each position so that we truly be an expensive team of world beaters. A pet hate of mine is when people pick their World XI’s and they have so many players out of position that you think to yourself “that team wouldn’t actually win due to a tactical imbalance”, so we will not be going down that avenue.

I think we’ll go for the 4-3-3 formation as I think a 4-4-2 formation will not allow us to load the bases with attacking talent, especially as the biggest money moves tend to be for attackers. Ok that is the rules out of the way, here is my expensive eleven and it also finally it is transfers in pounds sterling.

Goalkeeper: Ederson

Already time to split hairs with the first name on the teamsheet, people will probably ask “what about Gianluigi Buffon” that is the record transfer in terms of Euro’s unfortunately for the Italian international we are only working in Pounds. That means Ederson’s £35m pound move to Manchester City just gets the nod.

Right-Back: Kyle Walker

Continuing the Manchester City connection, England international Kyle Walker slots in with the number two shirt after his move from Tottenham in 2017. The £50m spent on the former Sheffield United player makes him the third most expensive defender of all time

Left-Back: Benjamin Mendy

Why have one big money full back at Manchester City when you can have two, the former Monaco man also linked up with the runaway league leaders last Summer and his £52m move was a world record for a defender until just a few days ago.

Centre Back: Virgil van Dijk

That is because the world record was broken by Liverpool who spent a hefty £75m on Virgil van Dijk at the start of the month. Jurgen Klopp finally got his man after a long time courting the Dutch international and after his winner at the weekend against Everton it already looks like money well spent

Centre Back: John Stones

It feels like we are just listing Manchester City players with four of the first five names on the team sheet coming from the Etihad. The final member of the quartet is that of John Stones whose £47.5m move from Everton back in 2016 sees him complete the defence

Centre Midfield: Philippe Coutinho

The Brazilian international joins this fabled list on the basis that the move to Barcelona is all but complete, £142m slots him into one of three centre midfield berths, and in doing so it knocks Argentinian international Angel Di Maria out of the side

Centre Midfield: Paul Pogba

Manchester United may have let him go for a pittance but they bought Pogba back home eventually, it may have cost the Old Trafford outfit £89m back in 2016 but that previous world record signing has been blown out of the water by other signings on this list

Centre Midfield: James Rodriguez

The inclusion of James Rodriguez is the only one where a player has been signed for big money but has then since been shipped on. It was Real Madrid who spent £63m on the Colombian international back in 2014 but the midfielder is now plying his trade with Bayern Munich.

Attacker: Neymar

The man who changed the game in terms of transfer fee, Barcelona set his buyout clause at £200m thinking that would be enough of a deterrent. That is usually the case, not however if you are French giants PSG who probably found that money down the back of a chaise lounge.

Attacker: Ousmane Dembele

Barcelona quickly spent some of the Neymar bounty on France’s Ousmane Dembele, a transfer that at the time was the second highest of all time. His stint at the Nou Camp got off to a bright start but was then hampered by serious injury, he will be hoping that 2018 is more of a success.

Attacker: Gareth Bale

The Welsh international gets the final berth in the expensive eleven after his move from Tottenham back in 2013, £86m was the fee required to swap White Hart Lane for the Santiago Bernabeu and in turn it has knocked Cristiano Ronaldo out of the team.

So there we have it, there is my expensive eleven. Do you reckon my team of world beaters would be all conquering? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

 

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