Juventus have smashed the Serie A transfer record with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, two years after doing the same for Gonzalo Higuain.
The Portuguese superstar has joined the Old Lady for €100m signing a four year contract believed to be worth around €30m per season.
Juventus have smashed the Serie A transfer record with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, two years after doing the same for Gonzalo Higuain.
The Portuguese superstar has joined the Old Lady for €100m signing a four year contract believed to be worth around €30m per season.
While it’s expected that the Bianconeri’s parent company, Exor, will cover some of that with sponsorships – Ronaldo could become the global face of Ferrari – it’s still comfortably the highest salary ever paid in Serie A.
Ronaldo is also the moest expansive transfer in the history of the Italian top flight, ahead of the €94m the Old Lady paid to prize Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli in 2016.
Before that you’d have to go back 16 years for the last time the Serie A transfer record was broken, with Hernan Crespo joining Parma for €56.81m ahead of the 2000-01 season.
The Biancocelesti were the Scudetto holders at the time, but their lavish transfer spending eventually led to serious financial issues.
Christian Vieri’s move from the Aquile to Inter in 1999 was the previous record holder at €46.48m.
Those two deals broke the world transfer record, and no Italian club has broken the record since Crespo’s move to Lazio.
Of the 10 highest transfer fees ever paid in Serie A, Juventus have shelled out for five, with this summer’s signing of Joao Cancelo coming in as the 10th most expensive ever.
Joao Mario’s €40m move to Inter in 2016 was more than the Bianconeri paid for Pavel Nedved in 2001, higher than Milan’s move for Pippo Inzaghi that same summer and almost €10m more than the Rossoneri paid for Alessandro Nesta.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the inflation in the transfer market, seven of the top 20 most expensive transfers in Serie A history have come in the past two summers.