The highest loan fees in history revealed as Alvaro Morata features twice

Morata in top 10 twice 

Loans have become increasingly popular in football in recent decades as they can be beneficial to clubs for numerous factors. For the selling club, they can allow them to offload an unwanted player’s wages for a season and can include options for a permanent sale. For a buying club, they can take a closer look at a player before any potential permanent deal or merely provide a cheaper stop-gap option to fill a hole in the squad.

Major clubs often loan out their youngsters to smaller clubs to gain first-team experience but some loan deals involve big money fees. Last summer, Jadon Sancho moved to Chelsea on-loan from Manchester United and Victor Osimhen spent the season at Galatasaray. Both represented high-profile loan deals but neither feature in the top 30 biggest loan fees. Using Transfermarkt data, we’ve analysed the ten biggest loan fees paid across history!

The biggest loan fees in history

Few players have represented as many major European clubs as Álvaro Morata with the Spanish international accumulating €208 million in transfer fees across his career. And €42m of his accumulated total have arrived from loan fees with Morata involved in the two most expensive loan deals ever. In September 2022, Juventus paid a €20m loan fee to Atlético Madrid with the striker spending two years in Turin before returning to Diego Simeone’s men. As the graphic below illustrates, Morata initially joined Atlético in 2019 with the Spanish giants paying €18m to Chelsea to secure his signature.

Giovani Lo Celso’s €16m loan move to Tottenham in 2019 ranks third and it included a buy-option with the Argentinian moving to London permanently. Duván Zapata’s €14m loan move from Sampdoria to Atalanta is currently fourth but Jhon Durán’s impending loan move to Fenerbahce will eclipse that deal as it’s understood to be a €15m loan fee. Some famous deals feature in the top ten including James Rodríguez’s move from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich and Carlos Tevez from West Ham to Manchester United.