Chelsea FC’s Highest Transfer Fees Paid

Big signings aren’t necessarily a new concept for the Blues. Their first £100 transfer was Robert McRoberts who signed at the start of Chelsea’s inaugural season in 1905/06 from Small Heath, the club which would go on to become Birmingham City. That might not sound much by today’s inflated fees but the world record at that time was £700, set the previous year when Andrew McCombie made the move from Sunderland to Newcastle.

It would take until after the First World War for the club to break the £1000 mark for a transfer, paying £2,500 for war hero and future star of the stage and screen, Jack Cock, from Huddersfield. Chelsea’s first £10,000 signing was Hughie Gallacher from Newcastle in 1930, who would go on to score 81 goals for the club. Chelsea paid £50,000 for Derek Kevan in March 1963 but he was sold before the start of the next season after scoring just once.

Chelsea’s first £100,000 player was Tony Hately, father of former England international Mark, who was brought in from Aston Villa in 1966. Chelsea broke the £1 million barrier for the first time on a player who would go on to become a club legend, Dennis Wise. The midfielder was signed from Wimbledon in July 1990 for £1.6m. Chris Sutton was a British record signing for Blackburn when he moved from Norwich for £5m in 1994. Chelsea paid Rovers £10m for the striker in July 1999, a new record for the club.

When billionaire Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea back in 2003, he bought with him previously unseen spending power. In his first transfer window in the summer before the 2003/04 season, Chelsea paid out over £120m on new players including Damien Duff for £17m, Hernan Crespo for £16.8m and Claude Makélélé for £16m. Young English talent was also recruited with Joe Cole, Scott Parker, Wayne Bridge and Glen Jonson all brought in.

By the time Abramovich sold the club in 2022, he had spent a reported £2 billion on transfers. In that time Chelsea broke the British record for a transfer fee paid twice. The first was Andriy Shevchenko for £30m in 2006, followed by Fernando Torres for £50m in 2011. Abramovich’s last big signing as owner was Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan for a club record £97.5m.

When the BlueCo consortium made up of Todd Boehly, Mark Walter, Hansjörg Wyss and the Clearlake Capital Group completed their takeover of Chelsea in May of 2022, Chelsea fans would be forgiven for thinking the days of big-money signings at the club were over, but they would be wrong. In their first three transfer windows, Chelsea spent in the region of £1 billion on new players, including breaking the British transfer record when they signed Enzo Fernández from Benfica for over £106m.

Below we have a table of the most expensive ever Chelsea FC signings.

Chelsea FC Most Expensive Transfer Fees Paid