Real Madrid's most expensive signings
Real Madrid are one of the most powerful football clubs in the world and they make it known when it comes to transfers, making some of the biggest signings in history.
Between 2000 and 2013, for example, Real Madrid broke the world transfer record five times in a row. And while they have made some shrewd free signings as well, those have often included huge signing-on fees for the players in question – such as Kylian Mbappe in 2024.
It may come as a surprise that there are only 11 players Real Madrid have ever spent €50m or more on, despite their willingness to push the boundaries for the biggest deals.
Time will tell how much Real Madrid spend this summer, with Xabi Alonso set to replace Carlo Ancelotti as head coach, but for now, here are their 10 most expensive signings of all time – and not without a couple of flops…
10. Luis Figo – €60m
If you’re going to break the world transfer record for the first time in your history, you might as well do it by snatching one of your biggest rival’s best players.
Madrid sent shockwaves through the sport when signing Luis Figo in 2000. They did so by activating his release clause, which left Barcelona – the club he’d been playing for over the past five seasons – helpless.
Safe to say, it didn’t go down well with his former club. Missiles were aimed at Figo upon his return to Camp Nou in October 2000 – but nothing yet quite like the pig’s head that would be planted near the corner flag in the same fixture in 2002 – but when he won the Ballon d’Or a month later, it will all have been at the back of his mind.
Figo went on to make 245 appearances for Madrid, scoring 58 goals. He won La Liga twice and the Champions League once during his spell in the Spanish capital.
9. Luka Jovic – €63m
After a 27-goal season for Eintracht Frankfurt in 2018-19, Luka Jovic became hot property on the striker market. It was Madrid won the race to sign him – and that’s when things started to take a turn for the worse.
Jovic returned just two goals in his first season in Spain, despite becoming a LaLiga champion. In fact, just 18 months after his move, he was sent on loan back to Frankfurt.
The Serbia striker became part of the Madrid squad again for the 2021-22 season, but only scored once. Consequently, Madrid released him from his contract, thus failing to recoup any of their €63m investment.
He has been playing in Italy ever since, first for Fiorentina and then for AC Milan.
8. Kaka – €67m
Madrid made Kaka the most expensive player in history for all of four weeks when they signed him from AC Milan in June 2009, just a couple of days before putting a bid in for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Kaka had enjoyed six seasons with AC Milan, with whom he won the Champions League in 2007 – after which he earned the Ballon d’Or.
Madrid spent €67m to sign him two years later, kickstarting what would be a four-year spell in Spain for the Brazil playmaker. However, injury issues disrupted Kaka’s progress, particularly at the start of his second season.
Ultimately, Madrid allowed Kaka to return to Milan for free in 2013, but they did negotiate some add-ons related to his performances. He left Madrid with 120 games and 29 goals behind him, with one La Liga title and one Copa del Rey to show for his efforts.
7. James Rodriguez – €75m
The darling of the 2014 World Cup, Rodriguez earned a move from Monaco to Real Madrid on the back of his escapades with Colombia in Brazil, where he won the Golden Boot.
But Rodriguez was already a valuable player before that, costing Monaco €45m to sign from Porto in 2013. He scored nine goals in Ligue 1, but it was really his form at the World Cup that made him such a coveted target.
Madrid forked out €75m for the attacking midfielder, with Ancelotti the grateful recipient. In a sign of how highly they rated him, immediately gave him the no.10 shirt. His presentation was attended by a crowd of 45,000.
Rodriguez’s first season in Madrid was the best of his career, with 17 goals in all competitions. In the next two seasons, he became a Champions League winner.
A two-year loan spell with Bayern Munich followed before a final campaign with Los Blancos until he was released on a free transfer.
He has had a fairly nomadic career since, playing in England – where he reunited with Ancelotti at Everton – then Qatar, Greece, Brazil, Spain and Mexico.
6. Zinedine Zidane – €77.5m
A player who enjoyed plenty of success in his career but is synonymous for his best moments with Madrid, Zidane was signed from Juventus in 2001 in a deal that saw the club break the world transfer record for a second consecutive year after Figo’s move in 2000.
Madrid’s latest Galactico was a big hit. He was 29 years old by the time he made his Madrid debut and ultimately saw out the final five years of his career in Spain.
Who can forget his volley to help Madrid win the Champions League final in 2002? The French midfielder also went on to win La Liga the following season.
Madrid got no money back for Zidane, since he retired at the end of his 230-game spell with the club (and after that headbutt on Marco Materazzi at the World Cup with France).
However, he later brought plenty more value back to the club as a head coach, famously leading them to three consecutive Champions League titles in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.
From the touchline, Zidane also led Madrid to La Liga glory in 2016-17 and 2019-20.
5. Aurelien Tchouameni – €80m
At the height of their powers during Zidane’s first spell in charge, Madrid relied on a midfield trio of Casemiro, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, who cost €15m, €25m and €35m to sign respectively.
But as the time came to start evolving in that department, Madrid plucked two top French talents, signing Eduardo Camavinga from Rennes for €31m in 2021 and then Tchouameni from Monaco a year later.
Tchouameni had put up some stunning numbers in Ligue 1. In his last season with Monaco, he made the fifth-most progressive passes in the league and the joint-fourth-most tackles, as well as the most interceptions outright.
Thus, Madrid showed little hesitation in wanting to add him to their squad. They faced competition from Liverpool, but not for the first or last time, managed to be more convincing than the Premier League giants.
The Spanish papers at the time claimed head coach Ancelotti was directly involved in the process by speaking to Tchouameni over the phone.
An agreement was ultimately reached for an €80m move, which could even rise to €100m with add-ons. Tchouameni won his first career trophy on his Madrid debut in the UEFA Super Cup.
Over his first three seasons in Spain, he hasn’t always been able to play in his preferred position, but Ancelotti has happily relied on him at centre-back too.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo – €94m
£80m. Nine seasons. 438 appearances. 450 goals. Two La Liga titles. Four Champions Leagues. What more can you say?
Ronaldo was the reigning Ballon d’Or holder when Madrid signed him from Manchester United in 2009. A year after trying to get their hands on him, they finally did so by breaking the world transfer record for the second time that summer, after the Kaka deal.
The Portugal forward exclaimed it was a ‘boyhood dream’ come true to sign for Madrid, where he was greeted by more than 80,000 fans for his presentation alone.
He went on to become their all-time record scorer early into his seventh season, also winning the Ballon d’Or four more times while representing them.
Never failing to break the 30-goals-a-season barrier (actually getting more than 40 in all but his first), Ronaldo’s cost-per-goal to Madrid, measured against his transfer fee, was lower than €209,000. They even managed to make a profit on him, despite him being 33 years old when he left for Juventus in a €100m deal.
3. Gareth Bale – €101m
The culmination of Madrid’s streak of breaking the world transfer record five times in a row, Bale was bought from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013, during the same summer that Ancelotti arrived in the dugout.
Like Ronaldo, Bale would spend nine years on Madrid’s books – but one of those was back on loan with Spurs after he fell out of favour.
Indeed, Bale was a player who divided opinion in Madrid, despite his 106 goals from 258 games. His overhead kick in the 2018 Champions League final against Liverpool was unforgettable, but critics pointed to his failure to acclimatise in Spain.
In 2020, the Wales winger’s agent Jonathan Barnett denied accusations that Bale could never speak Spanish. But by that point, the perception of Bale in Madrid had deteriorated significantly.
Thus, Bale was released in 2022 and went on to move to MLS side LAFC as a free agent. With 15 medals in the bag, though, it would be harsh to say he didn’t have a successful stint with Madrid.
2. Jude Bellingham – €113m
Bellingham took the world by storm after joining Madrid from Borussia Dortmund in 2023, favouring LaLiga over the Premier League when picking his next club.
Still a teenager when the move went through, although he did celebrate his 20th birthday before Ancelotti gave him his debut, Bellingham came at a premium price after 132 appearances and 24 goals for Dortmund.
The former Birmingham City talent hit the ground running in Spain. He was Madrid’s top scorer in LaLiga in 2023-24 with 19 goals, which helped Ancelotti’s side win the league. Bellingham was named the player of the season in LaLiga.
Not only that, but Madrid won the Champions League in June 2024, with Bellingham among the assists in the final against his former club Dortmund.
He has adapted his role since to not be quite as advanced up the pitch after the arrival of Kylian Mbappe, but is still showing his influence and remains under contract until 2029.
1. Eden Hazard – €120.8m
The most expensive signing in Madrid history is one they’d rather forget. It always seemed to be in Hazard’s destiny to join the club, but when he got there, there was a chasm between expectations and reality.
Costing an initial €100m, Hazard became Madrid’s record signing after add-ons came into play. But he was a shadow of the player he’d been at Chelsea and constantly encountered injury issues.
The most appearances Hazard made in a season for Madrid was 23. In total, he only scored seven goals from 76 appearances across four seasons.
Considering he was believed to be earning more than €600,000 per week, the investment in Hazard turned out to be a total disaster for Madrid.
They reached a mutual agreement to terminate his contract in 2023 and a few months later the Belgian winger announced his retirement from football.
Remember that stat earlier about each Ronaldo goal for Madrid costing less than €209,000 compared to his transfer fee? Hazard cost the club more than €17m per goal.