From a record -£ 3.6 million contract with Alan Shearer, the Premier League now witnessed a new super terrible number of up to £ 125 million when Alexander Isak left Newcastle to join Liverpol. How did this process happen?
During the last hours of the summer transfer window 2025, Alexander Isak had what he had longed for when he left Newcastle United to join Liverpool. The Premier League champion spent £ 125 million for the Swedish striker, the highest fee that a club he once spent to buy players.
Record journey
The Athletic has recorded the Premier League transfer records broken since 1992. Note, only when the Premier League club is the buyer.
For example, Moises Caicedo joined Chelsea from Brighton in August 2023 with an initial fee of 100 million pounds (an additional £ 15 million). Due to the disclosure of surcharges, Enzo Fernandez (to Chelsea in the beginning of 2023) is considered a record holder before Isak. The same case takes place with Florian Wirtz, when he moved from Leverkusen to Liverpool in the summer of 2025.
In fact, if the total transfer fee of the first 10 deals (from Alan Shearer in 1992 to Juan Sebastian Veron in 2001), the figure is only 10 million pounds lower than the amount of Liverpool money spent on Isak. This is a clear evidence for the escalating speed of the player market for more than 30 years.
There are only two players who have broken the record twice: Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand. And both of them later carried the England captain's armband.
Of the 17 players who hold a record over time, 9 people who won the Premier League. The remaining 8 people include Stan Collymore, Andriy Shevchenko, Robinho, Fernando Torres, Angel Di Maria, Paul Pogba, Enzo Fernandez and Isak. However, Torres, Di Maria, Pogba and Fernandez used to win the World Cup.
The play position of the “blockbuster”
Isak is the first striker to break the record after more than 14 years, since the Fernando Torres deal to Chelsea in January 2011. Notably, then Liverpool was the recipient of a record fee, and they certainly expect Isak to have a better start than Torres, who had 13 consecutive matches when they first came to London.
Of the 19 record breaking, there were 10 strikers (including two times of Shearer), 5 midfielders, 2 defenders (both Ferdinand) and 2 winger.
Related clubs
There are 8 clubs that have broke the Premier League transfer record, of which Man United led with 7 times (but only 2 times since 2002).
Of these 8 clubs, the two teams who have never won the Premier League are Leeds United and Newcastle United. Leicester City is the only team that ever won the Premier League (2015/16) but never broke the transfer record. Their most expensive deal is to spend 40 million pounds to buy Youi Tielemans from Monaco in 2019.
Notably, 4/8 clubs broke the record later … relegated, including Blackburn, Newcastle, Leeds and Man City. However, with Man City, this only happened before they bought Robinho, and the other three teams were relegated after breaking the record.
Blackburn is one of the five teams that have broke the record more than once, when recruiting Shearer (1992) and Chris Sutton (1994) to create a legendary “SAS” pair to help Kenny Dalglish win the 1994/95 championship.
Newcastle also participated in two records of record, like Nottingham Forest. Forest sold Roy Keane to Man United in 1993 and Stan Collymore for Liverpool in 1995. Keane then won 12 big titles with the Red Devils, while Collymore was empty -handed.
Before Isak, Newcastle sold Andy Cole to Man United in 1995, and Cole also reaped 8 big titles at Old Trafford.
In addition, Inter Milan was the first foreign team to participate in a record breaking of the Premier League, when selling Dennis Bergkamp to Arsenal in 1995, in the summer that Collymore to Liverpool.
The record frequency of transfer is broken
The Premier League transfer record has been broken more than once in the same year in two stages: 1995 and 2001.
In 1995, the record was overcome three times when Andy Cole, Dennis Bergkamp and Stan Collymore joined new clubs at a record fee.
By 2001, the record was broken twice, all by Man United. Sir Alex Ferguson's team, then became the fourth club in the history of the highest championship in England for 3 consecutive seasons, recruited Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy from PSV and continued to bring back to midfielder Argentina Juan Sebastian Veron from Lazio.
However, both contracts could not help Man United win the fourth championship in a row. In the 2001/02 season, the Red Devils only reached the third destination, after Arsenal (champion) and Liverpool, although Van Nistelrooy scored 23 goals in the Premier League launch season.
There was a record period that was not broken for 4 consecutive years, until Man City bought Jack Grealish in 2021 for £ 100 million. This is the first time the record has been broken since the Paul Pogba deal joined Man United in 2016 for £ 89 million.
During the period from Torres to Chelsea in January 2011 until Grealish left Aston Villa in 2021, there were only two records: Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid to Man United by Louis van Gaal (2014) and Pogba from Juventus to Man United by Jose Mourinho (2016). That is, during 10 and a half years, only twice were broken. In contrast, within the last 4 years, the record has been broken 3 times.
The £ 89 million fee for Pogba is nearly £ 30 million higher than the amount of Manchester United paid to Di Maria two years earlier. This is the biggest dance in the history of the Premier League transfer record.
The nationality of the “blockbuster”
There have been players from 9 different countries that once broke the Premier League transfer record. However, only him (8 times, including Shearer and Ferdinand twice), Argentina (3 times) and the Netherlands (2 times) are more than one player holding a record. Alexander Isak was the first Sweden to do this.
Roy Keane (Ireland) was the first non -British player to hold the record, when moving to Man United in 1993.
The Enzo Fernandez deal of Chelsea in 2023 helped him join the group of Argentine stars who have broken the record, besides Veron and Di Maria. Notably, Veron was the first European player to hold a record.
So far, no players other than European and South America have broken the Premier League transfer record.