The biggest transfer after every European Championship since Euro 96: Man Utd, Real Madrid signings…

There have been some major moves after European Championships gone by
Major international tournaments often spawn big-money transfers involving players who stood out during the summer competitions – and Euro 2024 was no different.
The likes of Dani Olmo (Barcelona) and Mikel Merino (Arsenal) from champions Spain made expensive switches at club level, for example – but neither were the subject of the biggest post-Euros move this year.
Here, we look back at the biggest post-tournament deals involving players who’d appeared at the Euros for each edition since 1996.
1996 – Alan Shearer to Newcastle – £15m
Forking out more than double the then-British-record fee they’d received 18 months earlier when selling Andy Cole to Manchester United, Newcastle United sent shockwaves around the game when they spent £15 million to sign Alan Shearer in the summer of 1996.
Shearer had just enjoyed a stellar European Championship with England on home soil, powering Terry Venables’ Three Lions to the semi-finals and earning the Golden Boot with five goals.
Real Madrid and Manchester United had both also wanted Shearer that summer, but the star striker – who’d scored 130 goals in 171 games for Blackburn Rovers – chose his hometown club. The fee Newcastle paid for the 25-year-old set a new world record, eclipsing the £13.2 million Barcelona had splashed on Ronaldo just two weeks earlier.
2000 – Luis Figo to Real Madrid – £37 million
In one of the most controversial transfers in football history, Luis Figo left Barcelona in the summer of 2000 to join rivals Real Madrid after Los Blancos activated his record-breaking £37 million release clause.
Figo had shone at Euro 2000, guiding Portugal on a run to the semi-finals. His capture was a huge statement of intent for Madrid, beginning the club’s ‘Galacticos’ era that saw them sign a footballing mega-star each year for much of the 2000s.
The former Sporting CP winger won the Ballon d’Or later that year and was named the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001. He went on to win two La Liga titles and one Champions League over five seasons at the Bernabeu.
2004 – Wayne Rooney to Manchester United – £27 million
Although England were eliminated at the quarter-final stage, 18-year-old Wayne Rooney was unquestionably the brightest star to emerge from Euro 2004.
A string of fearless performances and four goals at the tournament shot the Everton striker to global acclaim. And had his Euros campaign not been ended prematurely by a broken metatarsal suffered in England’s last-eight loss to hosts Portugal, the Three Lions might have enjoyed a deeper run.
Despite the injury meaning Rooney would not be fit for the start of the following season, top clubs chasing the youngster’s signature were not deterred. Newcastle launched a £20 million bid for his services, while Chelsea were also lingering. But it was Manchester United, with an offer of £27 million, who won the Rooney race and made England’s newest superstar the most expensive teenager ever.
Rooney would go on to write himself into Old Trafford history, winning five league titles, a Champions League and a World Club Cup while also becoming United’s all-time highest scorer with 253 goals.
2008 – Ricardo Quaresma to Inter Milan – £17 million
In the summer of 2008, Real Madrid attempted to sign Cristiano Ronaldo in what would have been a record-breaking deal, but Manchester United held on to their superstar forward for one more year.
That same transfer window, Manchester City paid £32.5 million to sign Robinho from Real Madrid, while the biggest fee paid for a European player was the £30 million Manchester United forked out for Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov.
But Berbatov’s Bulgaria hadn’t qualified for Euro 2008. And while Portuguese midfielder Danny moved to Zenit Saint Petersburg for £25 million, he didn’t make his senior international debut until after the tournament.
All of that left another Portuguese player as the most expensive player involved at the Euros that year to change clubs, with Ricardo Quaresma joining Inter Milan in a £17 million move from Porto.
The winger proved to be a flop at the San Siro, making just 24 Serie A appearances and scoring only once before first leaving to join Chelsea on loan and then making a permanent switch to Besiktas in 2010.
2012 – Javi Martinez to Bayern Munich – £32 million
Spain secured a third successive major tournament crown at Euro 2012, and once the dust had settled on the championship, Bayern Munich paid £32 million to sign a member of La Roja’s victorious squad.
Javi Martinez only appeared in one game at that year’s Euros, but with Spain boasting an all-time great collection of midfield talent at the time – Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla and David Silva were all in Vicente del Bosque’s squad – his lack of game time needn’t be seen as an indictment on his ability.
An expert anchor in front of the backline who also had the size and savvy to be equally effective as a central defender, Martinez joined Bayern from Athletic Bilbao and enjoyed nine trophy-laden seasons at the Allianz Arena.
Belgian duo Eden Hazard and Axel Witzel also made £32 million moves in the summer of 2012, to Chelsea and Zenit respectively, but Belgium, whose ‘Golden Generation’ was yet to blossom, failed to qualify for the tournament.
2016 – Paul Pogba to Manchester United – £89 million
Having hired Jose Mourinho to be their manager and signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer already that summer, Manchester United were evidently intent upon making waves ahead of the 2016-17 season.
And the arrival of Paul Pogba for a world-record £89 million fee certainly did that.
The Frenchman was fresh off helping Les Bleus reach the final of Euro 16 on home soil, where they’d lost in extra time to Portugal. And after four seasons with Juventus in which he’d starred in four Serie A title triumphs, two Coppa Italia wins and a run to the 2015 Champions League final, the 23-year-old midfielder was one of the most eye-catching and talked-about players in Europe.
Pogba had been at United as a teenager but had left to join Juve as a free agent in 2012 when he was just 19. His Old Trafford return ultimately was not as glorious as the club had hoped and he again left on a free in 2022, re-joining Juventus after 226 games and 39 goals for the Red Devils.
Although he was frustratingly inconsistent and never truly delivered on his potential with United – with his career peak instead coming on the international stage as he was instrumental in France’s 2018 World Cup win – Pogba was still sublime in fleeting moments. He helped United to a first-ever Europe League triumph and two second-place finishes in the Premier League.
2021 – Jack Grealish to Manchester City – £100 million
Jack Grealish only started one game in England’s run to the final of Euro 2020 – which had been delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic – but the gifted winger had been one of the breakout Premier League stars of the previous two seasons.
After helping boyhood club Aston Villa return to the Premier League and consolidate their status in the top flight, Grealish had become one of the most-wanted and highly valued young players in England.
Manchester United had tried to sign him a year earlier, but Villa resisted all offers and tied their star academy graduate down to a new contract. That deal, however, included a £100 million release clause, which City triggered in the weeks after the Euros.
The fee was a new British record, but for his part in their Treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in his second season at the Etihad, City will consider it money well spent.
2024 – Pedro Neto – £51.4 million
Although Portugal reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, Pedro Neto only played in the group stage for them – and yet he was still the player who moved for the biggest fee from the tournament in the summer.
The only players who made moves this summer worth more than the £51.4m fee, which could rise to £54m, that Chelsea paid for Neto were Julian Alvarez (an Argentina international), Dominic Solanke (not part of England’s squad) and Leny Yoro (yet to make his senior France debut).
Admittedly, much of Chelsea’s motivation for signing Neto was down to his form at club level with Wolves, rather than anything he did at the Euros – which was his first senior international tournament after missing the 2022 World Cup through injury – but they tied him down to a seven-year contract upon his arrival at Stamford Bridge.
READ NEXT: The 10 most expensive English transfers of all time: Rice to Arsenal, Bellingham to Real Madrid…