Man Utd's 10 biggest sales of all time

FT Desk

• Updated: 24 Feb 2026 01:36 CST
• 6 min read

Analysis

Manchester United are arguably the biggest club in world football and have splashed the cash accordingly.

The Red Devils have consistently been among the top spenders in the transfer market, signing the likes of Antony, Paul Pogba, Jadon Sancho and Rasmus Hojlund for huge fees in recent years.

United have also been able to sell players for significant amounts, but it hasn't been their great strength in comparison to some of their Premier League rivals.

Below, FootballTransfers lists Man Utd's 10 most expensive sales of all time.

10. Jaap Stam - €25.8m (to Lazio, 2001)

Sir Alex Ferguson later admitted that one of his biggest regrets as Man Utd manager was agreeing to sell Jaap Stam to Lazio in 2001.

The big Dutchman was one of the best centre-backs in the world at the time, but the pair fell out over comments made in Stam's autobiography.

That dispute allowed Lazio to sign the defender for just €25.8m, which was an absolute steal for a player with his quality.

9. Mason Greenwood - €26m (to Marseille, 2024)

Mason Greenwood's promising Man Utd career came to a screeching halt when he was arrested and charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault in October 2022.

Though these charges were dropped - without Greenwood being proven innocent - he had to find a new club when he was cleared to play again in 2023. After a loan to Getafe, he joined Marseille for €26m in the summer of 2024.

United said in a brief statement: "We wish Mason all the best in his future career."

He shared the Ligue 1 Golden Boot with PSG star Ousmane Dembele in his first season in France.

8. Daniel James - €29.1m (to Leeds, 2021)

Daniel James signed for the Red Devils from Swansea in the summer of 2019 for a fee of €17.8m.

However, despite being one of the fastest players in the Premier League, the Welsh winger never really flourished at Old Trafford.

He scored just six Premier League goals in two seasons before United sold him to Leeds for an impressive profit, given the fact he had never really proven himself to be English top-flight quality.

7. Scott McTominay - €30.5m (to Napoli, 2024)

Scott McTominay was always misprofiled at Man Utd. A box-crashing midfielder, the academy graduate was consistently shoehorned into more defensive roles at Old Trafford.

As a result, he was never able to fulfil his potential at his boyhood club, and in 2024, with Man Utd needing to raise funds to balance the books, he was offloaded to Serie A giants Napoli for €30.5m.

In Naples, McTominay blossomed into one of Europe's most devastating midfielders. He was named Serie A's MVP after leading Napoli to the Scudetto in his first season and quickly made Man Utd regret their failure to utilise him properly.

6. Henrikh Mkhitaryan - €34m (to Arsenal, 2018)

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was involved in a strange swap deal with Alexis Sanchez in 2018, with the Chilean moving to Man Utd and Mkhitaryan joining Arsenal.

The move didn't work out for either party and Mkhitaryan left the Emirates Stadium in 2020 to join Roma on a free transfer. The Armenian scored nine goals and provided 13 assists in 59 Arsenal games.

5. David Beckham - €37.5m (to Real Madrid, 2003)

David Beckham was already a global superstar when Real Madrid decided to make him their next Galactico with a €37.5m purchase in 2003.

The England star had already achieved everything possible with Man Utd, including a continental treble in 1999, and as his relationship with Ferguson soured, a departure seemed increasingly likely.

He very nearly joined Barcelona that summer before they opted to sign Ronaldinho instead, and Beckham made his way to the Santiago Bernabeu.

4. Alejandro Garnacho - €46.2m (to Chelsea, 2025)

Alejandro Garnacho was signed by Man Utd from Atletico Madrid as a teenager, and he would go on to establish himself as one of the most talented players at Old Trafford.

However, he failed to consistently perform at a high level and fell out with Ruben Amorim shortly after the head coach's arrival in late 2024. After Man Utd lost the Europa League final to Tottenham, the Portuguese bluntly told the winger to find a new club.

The Argentine joined Chelsea after a drawn-out saga in the dying embers of the 2025 summer window for €46.2m, a fee Man Utd would have rejected out of hand just 12 months earlier.

3. Angel Di Maria - €63m (to PSG, 2015)

On the face of it, Man Utd's signing of Angel Di Maria in the summer of 2014 made perfect sense. He was their record transfer at the time, at €75m, having just helped Real Madrid to the Champions League with a Man of the Match performance in the final.

However, there were similar issues to Juan Sebastian Veron in that he struggled to adapt to his surroundings, and his house being burgled certainly didn’t help Di Maria settle.

But if Louis van Gaal expected Di Maria to lead the team into a new era, he signed the wrong player. Having played alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, he impressed away from the limelight and struggled with the pressure of being the club’s main man.

He was sold to Paris Saint-Germain after one season.

2. Romelu Lukaku - €74m (to Inter, 2019)

Few at Man Utd would admit it, including then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but the decision to sell Romelu Lukaku at a loss to Inter was probably a poor one.

The Belgian went on to take Serie A by storm and was key in Inter halting Juventus' decade-long dominance of Italian football by helping the Nerazzurri win the 2020-21 Scudetto.

Under the correct management, Lukaku could have found his best form at Old Trafford instead of in Italy. He returned to Chelsea before they loaned him to Inter and Roma. He then moved to Napoli on a permanent deal, rekindling his relationship with Antonio Conte.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo - €94m (to Real Madrid, 2009)

It seems difficult to fathom somebody outgrowing United, especially in the club's Ferguson-led heyday, but that was Cristiano Ronaldo's situation in 2009 when he left the Red Devils in a world-record transfer to join Real Madrid.

He was already a Ballon d'Or winner by the time he arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu, but he continued to get better, leaving goalscoring records in his wake.

Ronaldo is Real's greatest-ever goal-scorer, both in La Liga and the Champions League, and will go down as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

He moved on to Juventus in 2018 before clinching a sensational return to Man Utd in the summer of 2021. However, he departed for free midway through the 2022-23 season.

The 10 biggest Man Utd sales of all time