Raphael Varane’s impending €50 million move to Manchester United will not place him among the top ten most expensive defenders. Indeed, Varane’s football transfer is not among the costliest ones for defenders across history.
Real Madrid centre-back Raphael Varane will soon officially join Manchester United in the Premier League. In fact, the football news coming latest from is camp is that he will soon undergo a medical for United.
However, United and/or Real Madrid may be severely undervaluing Varane, though he is arguably the best centre-back in football currently.
Apparently, Varane will not even make it to the list of the top 10 most expensive defenders in the world.
Varane’s Football Transfer Is Not Among the Costliest Ones for Defenders
Raphael Varane is not the most expensive defender, indeed, right now, he’s not even close having the highest defender valuation.
Matthijs de Ligt and Achraf Hakimi are both ahead of him in the list of transfer fees across the world.
In the summer of 2019, Dutch centre-back Matthijs de Ligt joined Juventus from Ajax on a permanent €85.5 million deal. This transfer effectively made him the second-most expensive defender in history.
Meanwhile, Achraf Hakimi had joined Inter for €40 million in the summer of 2020. But their need to balance their books compelled the Nerazzurri to sell him after only one season with them.
And Hakimi’s €60 million summer move (transfer news football) from Inter to PSG is the eighth-most expensive transfer currently. This, of course, is within the circle of those transfer that involve a defender.
Moreover, Hakimi’s final price could be even higher than this valuation. That’s because the Ligue 1 giants have the option to offer the defender €11 million in bonuses over the years.
In fact, if they pay the full amount, Hakimi will become the fifth most expensive defender in history. He will even surpass Manchester City’s Ruben Dias with his salary in that case.
Here’s the list of the top 10 most expensive defenders in history:
- John Stones to Manchester City from Everton for €55.6m in 2016
- Benjamin Mendy to Manchester City from Monaco for €57.5m in 2017
- Achraf Hakimi to PSG from Inter for €60m in 2021
- Aymeric Laporte to Manchester City from Athletic for €65m in 2017
- Joao Cancelo to Manchester City from Juventus for €65m in 2019
- Ruben Dias to Manchester City from Benfica for €68m in 2020
- Lucas Hernandez to Bayern Munich from Atletico Madrid for €80m in 2019
- Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool from Southampton for €84.6m in 2018
- Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus from Ajax for €85.5m in 2019
- Harry Maguire to Manchester United from Leicester City for €87m in 2019
