The Highest and Lowest Amounts Paid For World Class Footballers

Football is the most followed sport in the entire world, and as such, it's a major business worth tens of billions of dollars each year. Teams, traditions, and fans all contribute to the value of the sport as a whole but a lot depends on the players - the right player in the right position can boost the standings of a team, improving its position in its league and giving a major boost to its market value.

Thus, player transfers - especially when it comes to players with a considerable star power and talent - can be quite expensive. How expensive, you might ask? Well, let's take a look at the cheapest and most expensive player transfers in football history. The cheapest: Raúl Raúl González Blanco, better known simply as Raúl, was at one time the subject of the cheapest transfer in football history. After beginning to play at his local team in Madrid - San Cristóbal de los Ángeles - he signed with Atlético Madrid's youth team for two seasons between 1990 and 1992.

The team performed well, winning a national title in its category but this didn't stop the club's president Jesús Gil from shutting down the team's youth academy to cut the costs of the team.

Raúl moved on to Real Madrid's youth team from where he graduated in 1994 and was quickly promoted to the first division team. With Raúl, Atlético threw away a joker - during his 16 years at Real Madrid, he scored 228 goals in 550 matches, he won six La Liga titles, one UEFA Super Cup, and two Intercontinental Cups. He was the third top goalscorer behind Ronaldo and Messi, and the fifth-highest goalscorer in the history of La Liga. And he transferred from Atlético to Real completely free.

The most expensive: Neymar

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, better known as Neymar Jr. or simply Neymar, started playing football in Sao Paulo, at the age of seven.

In his first four years, he played for Santos FC, from where he moved on to the Catalan football club Barcelona in 2013. Back then, Barça paid a transfer fee of EUR 57.1 million for the young and promising player.

During his time at Barça, he has become one of the best-known footballers in the world, appearing in 123 games and scoring 68 times. As part of Barça's attacking trio with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, he won the continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the UEFA Champions League, and came third for the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2015.

No wonder the Catalan team wanted to hold on to him, setting an all-time record transfer fee for him: EUR 222 million. French football club Paris Saint-Germain was, in turn, happy to pay up the highest ever transfer fee in football history.