Stats & Links: Why Martinez was more expensive than Tolisso

Last week the French youngster Corentin Tolisso was transferred from Lyon to Munich. The Bavarians paid a record-breaking fee of 41.5 million euros for the 22-year-old. In our Round Up we will take a look at the most expensive transfers in FC Bayern’s history and compare them to the all time biggest ones worldwide at that time.

Maurice

June 23, 2017

Brazilians are expensive

This summer we will take a look at the proportion between the biggest FC Bayern transfer and the biggest transfer overall at that time. How much does FC Bayern spend on players in comparison to the international elite? Does FC Bayern become one of the spender-clubs with the Tolisso transfer this summer? Let us take a closer look at the statistics.

**Overview of the record fees overall and of FC Bayern over time. The red area represents the percentage of FC Bayern record transfers compared to the worldwide record transfers.**

The first two record transfers of FC Bayern, displayed right here, are bargains considering today’s fees. In 1998 and 2000 the club acquired Giovanne Elber and Paulo Sergio for 6.5 and 6.6 million euros. To compare: Just a few days ago, the transfer of Serge Gnabry was finalized, an almost raw talent, for 8 million euros.

Back then another Brazilian changed clubs from Barcelona to Inter Milan. The 21-year-old was called Ronaldo and Inter paid around 28 million euros for him. A record that shortly after was exceeded by another Brazilian, transferred to Betis Sevilla (Denilson, 31.5 million euros). It seems like it was the time of expensive Brazilians.

**Two Bayern record transfers sharing the pitch.**
(Image: Sebastian Schupfner/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Up until the summer of 2001 the overall transfer fee record was broken three more times. First it was the transfer of Christian Vieri (45 million), than Luis Figo (60 million) and finally Zinedine Zidane, who joined Real Madrid for the incredible amount of 75 million euros. In the same transfer window FC Bayern secured the services of Claudio Pizarro for only 8.2 million, which was a little over a tenth what Madrid paid for Zidane.

Even in the German Bundesliga, FC Bayern did not hold the record at the time. Borussia Dortmund made a move for Marcio Amoroso from Parma paying 25 million euros, which remained a Bundesliga record for many years to come. It was the time, when FC Bayern refused to touch their so called “fixed deposit account” and only improved the squad with players of other Bundesliga teams by not paying more than an average of 8 million euros.

Double figures for the first time

It was the summer of 2003, when FC Bayern started to spend more than 10 million euros on a single player. Roy Makaay arrived from Deportivo La Coruna, who previously had single-handedly outscored the Bavarian’s in the Champions League. They paid 19.5 million for the “Phantom”. It was the first time FC Bayern paid more than 25% of the record transfer fee as well.

Before the a new record move happened, with the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester to Madrid in 2009 (94 million euros), FC Bayern increased their record spendings two more times when they bought Franck Ribéry (25 million) and Mario Gomez (30 million).

Meanwhile some rethinking had taken place at Säbener Straße, with the outcome that international success required spending money like international competitors. The transfer of Ribéry not only marked a new Bundesliga record, but was also about as high as one third of the benchmark worldwide.

Under the reign of Uli Hoeneß as manager, FC Bayern started spending some of their hard earned capital, but without paying vast amounts like the European top teams at the time. Instead they were trying to build a squad with the best Bundesliga players in combination with some international players, who had the potential to reach a world class performance level at FC Bayern.

Another transfer of this category was the move of Manuel Neuer, who arrived in Munich in 2011, for a fee of 30 million euros.

40 million for the treble

In the summer of 2012/2013, Javi Martinez joined FC Bayern after the record champions finishing second in all of the major competitions in the previous season. After the unfortunate experience, those responsible had no issues anymore to spend 40 million on one player.

The fee of the Martinez transfer was 42.6% of the all time record, which represents the highest percentage so far regarding FC Bayern activities. Because of the transfers of Gareth Bale (101 million) and Paul Pogba (105 million) the record of the Ronaldo move was broken twice, so the Tolisso fee does not touch this percentage with 39.5%.

**The two most expensive players of the world.**
(Image: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)

A trend however cannot be denied. Since the Martinez transfer, FC Bayern has spend more than 35 million euros on one single player on five occastions. For the likes of Vidal, Götze, Hummels, Sanches and Tolisso, they paid at least 35% of the all time record fee.

Does the Vieri record of 1999 break this summer?

Until this day they never bought a player for more than 50% of the international benchmark. Likewise they never spend more than what Inter paid Milan for Vieri in 1999 (45 million euros).

President Uli Hoeneß talked about a bombshell, which is needed to improve the current squad. For a player like this, those marks are likely to be broken – both the 50% barrier, as well as the 45 million euro mark.