The 10 most expensive players over 30 of all time

Stuart Telford

• 17 Apr 2024 15:33 BST
• 6 min read

Harry Kane completed his €120 million move to Bayern Munich from Tottenham in the summer of 2023 and became the most expensive over-30 player of all time.

Kane enjoyed a sensational first season at Bayern from an individual point of view, top scoring in the Bundesliga, even if Bayern failed to win the title.

Kane was joined by Neymar on the over-30 list in the summer of 2023 after the Brazilian joined Al-Hilal from PSG for €90m.

READ MORE: What are the most expensive transfers of all time? The 50 highest fees in history

FootballTransfers looks at the most expensive 30-plus players in history.

The highest transfer fees of all time for over-30 footballers

10) Mats Hummels

From: Bayern Munich

To: Borussia Dortmund

Transfer fee: €37m

One of the world's best centre-backs at the peak of his career, Germany World Cup winner Mats Hummels has yo-yoed between the Bundesliga's two biggest teams at club level, breaking though at Bayern Munich, making his name at Borussia Dortmund, moving back to Bayern in 2016 and then returning to Dortmund three years later.

The last of those moves was the most expensive, Die Schwarzgelben shelling out just shy of €40m to bring him 'home' at the tender age of 30 years and six months in 2019.

9) Radja Nainggolan

From: Roma

To: Inter Milan

Transfer fee: €38m

A cornerstone of Belgium's golden generation alongside the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku, Radja Nainggolan spent much of the last decade considered as one of the best central midfielders in Serie A for his performances with Roma.

Inter paid big money for the then 30-year-old in 2018 in a deal which also included Davide Santon and Nicolo Zaniolo going the other way, but he was soon loaned to Cagliari and only played 40 minutes of their Serie A title-winning campaign in 2021.

=7) Paulinho

From: Guangzhou Evergrande

To: Barcelona

Transfer fee: €40m

Paulinho's top-level career looked to be winding down when he swapped Tottenham Hotspur for Guangzhou Evergrande in the summer of 2015, but the Brazilian midfielder played that well in China - plundering 28 goals and 10 assists in two seasons - that Barcelona brought him back to Europe in 2017.

The €40m they paid to do so remains an outright record fee received by a Chinese club. Paulinho helped Barca to a domestic double in 2018 before returning to Guangzhou and helping himself to a further 47 goals and 19 assists before actually winding down his career with Al Ahli and Corinthians.

=7) Kalidou Koulibaly

From: Napoli

To: Chelsea

Transfer fee: €40m

Kalidou Koulibaly completed his move from Napoli to Chelsea in July 2022, ending a wonderful eight-year stay at the Patronepei where he became one of Europe's finest defenders. He has joined the Blues at a time where they were keen on bolstering their back-line following the exits of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen.

Napoli are always stern negotiators, but had little power in Koulibaly's move as the Senegalese was entering the final year of his contract at the Serie A side, and were open to letting him go, with Chelsea quickly wrapping up talks.

His one and only season at Chelsea was something of a disappointment in a disastrous season in which the Blues finished twelfth. Koulibaly was sold to Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal in the summer of 2023.

6) Leonardo Bonucci

From: Juventus

To: AC Milan

Transfer fee: €42m

Juventus may have paid €35m to bring the Italy centre-back back into the fold in 2018, but Milan had been that keen to acquire him the previous season that they paid €7m more than that, making him the fifth-most expensive 30-year-old of all time.

5) Robert Lewandowski

From: Bayern

To: Barcelona

Transfer fee: €50m

The Polish international made his intentions to leave Bayern Munich very clear, using the press to spread the message that he wished to depart in order to pursue a new challenge at Barcelona.

His hope came to fruition, with Barcelona finally reaching an agreement with the Bavarian outfit over his transfer.

Lewnadowski immediately proved his worth as he scored 33 goals in all competitions to take Barcelona to the 2022-23 La Liga title.

4) Miralem Pjanic

From: Juventus

To: Barcelona

Transfer fee: €65m

Barcelona's financial dire straits are well-documented, the €222m sale of Neymar to PSG in 2017 having a domino effect which left the club more than €1 billion in the hole. Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho might grab the headlines as money not well spent, but Pjanic's fee is eyewatering.

Two months past his 30th birthday when he joined in the summer of 2020, Pjanic struggled at Camp Nou and only made six league starts before leaving on loan for Besiktas at the start of the 2021-22 season.

3) Neymar

From: PSG

To: Al-Hilal

Transfer fee: €90m

Neymar is the world's most expensive player ever and also the player who has accumulated the biggest combined transfer fees. Snapped up by PSG for a record-smashing €222m in 2017, the Brazilian departed in the summer of 2023 for a whopping €90m to follow the stream of superstars heading to the Saudi Pro League.

The Parisians deemed the injury-prone then 31-year-old surplus to requirements and decided to cash in on the megastar despite Neymar recording 13 goals and 11 assists in just 20 Ligue 1 outings the season prior. Their decision proved correct as Neymar suffered a season-ending injury soon after joining Al-Hilal.

2) Cristiano Ronaldo

From: Real Madrid

To: Juventus

Transfer fee: €112m

One of the greatest players of all time, and certainly the game's highest scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo has commanded a fee in the region of €100m more than once in his career - to and from Real Madrid with goal-laden spells with Manchester United and Juventus on either side.

His July 2018 move to Juve was the most expensive, the Old Lady paying €112m for an old man who has continued to defy Father Time. Ronaldo scored 101 goals in 134 games with Juve, winning five major trophies in the process.

1) Harry Kane

From: Tottenham

To: Bayern Munich

Transfer fee: €120m

Harry Kane smashed the Bayern Munich club transfer record in the summer of 2023 as he left Tottenham in a £120m deal, with add-ons included.

In the process, Kane became the most expensive sale in the history of Spurs.

Kane was signed as the belated replacement for Robert Lewandowski, one year after the Bayern legend had left to join Barcelona.

The England international was the highest goalscorer in the history of Tottenham, scoring an incredible 280 goals in 435 games. However, he never managed to win a trophy and that was a big reason in his decision to leave.

Kane enjoyed a brilliant first season at Bayern, top scoring in the Bundesliga, but he failed to win a trophy as Bayer Leverkusen lifted the title.