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Featured Sport News

Most expensive footballers

Author: Rose Young
Date: 13/06/2009

Kaka has joined Real Madrid in a £59million move and looks set to be joined at the Bernabeu by Cristiano Ronaldo after Manchester United accepted an £80million bid for the Portugal international to re-write the football transfer record books.

But while the signings prove that top-level football is largely immune from global recession, it remains to be seen how Kaka and Ronaldo cope with being the world's most expensive footballers.

Here are the previous star names who've had that burden foisted upon them:

Zinedine Zidane - (Juventus to Real Madrid, 2001) £46million

Florentino Perez is no stranger to smashing records as he shattered the previous one to bring Zidane to Madrid in his first reign as Real president. The France midfielder won one Champions League and domestic league crown during five seasons in Spain as one of the club's famous 'galacticos'. Zidane is one of only two players to be crowned FIFA World Player of the Year on three separate occasions.

Luis Figo - (Barcelona to Real Madrid, 2000) £38.7million

Another galactico in the Madrid ranks, Figo became a hate figure in Barcelona when he was transferred to bitter rivals Madrid for a then world record in 2000. The Portugal star retired this summer having won eight domestic league titles in Spain and Italy as well as the Champions League in 2002 with Real.

Hernan Crespo - (Parma to Lazio, 2000) £35.5million

Fresh from winning the Italian league in 1999, big-spending Lazio lured the Argentina striker to Rome. Crespo finished his first season as the top-scorer in Italy and went on to join AC Milan, Internazionale and Chelsea for combined fees in excess of £40million.

Gianluigi Buffon - (Parma to Juventus, 2001) £32.6million

The World Cup-winning Italy goalkeeper is regarded as one of the greatest custodians of all time. He has even provided value for money for Juve after opting to stick with the club even when they were relegated to the Italian second division for their part in a match-fixing scandal.

Robinho - (Real Madrid to Manchester City, 2008) £32.5million

Chelsea was his expected destination but Robinho - or his advisors - opted for ambitious Manchester City when he made the move from Madrid last summer. For all the talk of the Premier League being the richest in the world, the British record transfer is still a long way behind the likes of La Liga in Spain and Italy's Serie A.

Andriy Shevchenko - (AC Milan to Chelsea, 2006) £30.8million

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovic finally saw his dream become reality when the Ukraine legend made the move to Stamford Bridge in summer 2006. Unfortunately, the record-breaking AC Milan striker struggled to adapt to the pace of the Premier League and returned to Italy on loan less than two years later. His future remains unclear.

Dimitar Berbatov - (Spurs to Manchester United, 2008) £30.75million

Berbatov scored 14 goals in his debut season at Old Trafford but the jury is still out on the Bulgarian. The languid striker was prolific at Bayer Leverkusen and scored a goal every other game at Spurs, but his style of play has yet to win over every United fan despite helping the pre-season sportsbook betting favoutites to successfully defend the Premier League this season.

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