Neymar, James Rodriguez and Mario Götze have all changed their club this summer, for some astronomical amounts. The trio share another point in common : to be 21 years old. So what players (21 yo and under) the most expensive in football history ?

The transfer market has started, many high caliber players who already animated this early summer market. And if you look closely, some of them are very young members, aged just 21 years. This is particularly the case of Neymar, James Rodriguez, and Mario Götze.

A trio of 21 years, all together, is not less than € 139 million! So the question arises: Are these players the most expensive ones in football history ? I suggest you dear FR community to discover the Top 10, which appears particularly the French Nicolas Anelka!

The Top 10 players U21 most expensive in history:

1. Neymar, Santos transferred to FC Barcelona for (21 years) : 57 million €

2. James Rodriguez, transferred from Porto to Monaco (21 years) : 45 million €

3. Eden Hazard, from Lille to Chelsea (21 years) : 40 million €

4. Lucas Moura, from Sao Paulo transferred to PSG (20 years) : 40 million €

5. Mario Götze, Dortmund transferred to Bayern (21 years): 37 million €

6. Wayne Rooney, moved from Everton to Man Utd (18 years): 37 M €

7. Javier Saviola, transferred from River Plate to Barcelona (19 years): 35.9 M €

8. Karim Benzema, moved from Lyon to Real Madrid (to 21 years): 35 M €

9. Nicolas Anelka, transferred from Arsenal to Real Madrid (20 years): 35 M €

10. José Antonio Reyes, moved from Sevilla to Arsenal (20 years): 25 M €

Isco will join this ranking soon, and Thiago if he decides to leave must join it, 18M for Thiago is another waste of money for Barça AGAIN....

A lot of those numbers are wrong. Anelka went to RM for around £20m (~28m€) and our all time record transfer is arshavin at £15m so Reyes was not 35m€. There is no way Saviola was that expensive. I'd say around 25m. Same for Rooney. But that's how it is. There is more and more money in football, so players get every year more expensive.

Reyes 17.5 m£ 21 Meuros 2003
Saviola 26 Meuros+bonus 2001
Anelka 30.5 Meuros 1999
Rooney 31 Meuros 2004.
All those transferts were 9 years ago at least, knowing pounds and euros values groth, we must adapt the values to actual one if we wants to compare. It's stupid to (removed) values with new ones without making some changes.
ps : I took it from Footmercato.net, and i found it logical comparing years and values. you can notice the changes.
saviola : 26m in 2001 ---> 35.9m in 2013
anelka : 30.5 m in 1999----> 35 M IN 2013.

Correction, we signed Hazard for 37 million euros not 40 million euros :)

Well it's not as stupid as arbitrarily changing the values just so you can compare them. It's not logical.
Saviola 26m x 1,4 = 35,9m
Anelka 30,5m x 1,1 = 35m
If anelka's transfer was earlier than Saviola, the number should be higher because of the growth of prices over time. This article is twisting the numbers so it can be interesting.

Euros begun in 1999 if i remember, his values first were decreasing than it grows, i think those who made the ranks knows exactly what they are doing....
some website like database made same calculs go and see ex : http://www.footballdatabase.eu/football.joueurs.jose-antonio.reyes.1360.fr.html
Reyes is estimated about 35M for his transfert. go look for all others : footballdatabase.eu

Remember when Reyes was "better than Ronaldo"? O:)

lol Reyes was a beast, im actually watching Spain vs N igeria, Pedro is on fire.
@vendetta : http://www.footballdatabase.eu/football.joueurs.eden.hazard.20979.fr.html
Everybody wants to correct things, im not posting this to get corected all the time,Database is a reference in stats, no one told me that the top 5 transferts were this year and analysing why youth talents become that expensive.

@tiki -- Reyes was pretty good, but not all that. It was actually a subtle (shameless!) dig at Arsenal fans, anyway, more than anything else. ;) You probably had to have been in England during the height of the Man United vs Arsenal rivalry, to really get it...

I'm watching the same game -- should be 2-2! N-igeria have been awesome.

Reyes was so good for us :)

I was sad when he left. Ah well.