Alan Shearer claims he loved the pressure of being the world’s most expensive footballer. In summer 1996, one month after winning the Golden Boot at Euro 96, Shearer completed a world-record transfer to Newcastle United.
Sir John Hall forked out an unprecedented £15million to bring the then 26-year-old Geordie home - having left the city 10 years earlier to join Southampton. The Magpies’ all-time leading goal scorer was leaving a successful Blackburn side that had won the title one year earlier but the lure of scoring goals for his boyhood club was too much to turn down.
New calculations by the Athletic have converted the price of Premier League transfer fees from yesteryear into today’s money. A league table has Shearer placed at the top, adjusting his transfer fee to £222million in the modern-day market. For context, the current world-record is the £198million PSG paid Barcelona for Brazilian superstar Neymar in 2017.
