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The Days of the Outlandish Transfer Fee Are on Hold

When River Plate signed the larger-than-life center forward Bernabe Ferreyra from Tigre for £23,000 in 1932, it set a world transfer record that would endure until 1949. That's when Derby County picked up Johnny Morris from Manchester United for £24,000 after the inside forward had fallen out with Matt Busby. As the economic structures of football collapse, with players across Europe asked to take pay cuts and non-playing staff furloughed, the £198 million fee that sent Neymar from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 looks increasingly outrageous. Could that record also last 17 years?

Ferreyra moved a year after Argentinian football had turned professional.