The 10 most expensive players over 30 of all time

Robert Lewandowski is on the cusp of completing a €50 million move to Barcelona from Bayern Munich. Where would the Pole rank all-time among the most expensive players over 30?

Lewandowski turns 34 later this month, but Barcelona fans can be spared a sharp intake of breath safe in the knowledge that he still fired home 50 goals in just 46 games in all competitions last season.

Football Transfers looks at the most expensive 30-plus players in history.

10) Chris Wood

From: Burnley

To: Newcastle

Transfer fee: £25m/€29.6m

Who?! That's right, Chris Wood made it onto this list after completing his big-money move from Burnley to Newcastle midway through the 2021-22 season, a month after his 30th birthday.

The New Zealander may not exactly have lit up Tyneside - his return of two goals in 17 games in his first campaign left a bit to be desired - but his arrival did at least weaken a relegation rival, and Newcastle ended up 11th with him in the team.

=8) Jasper Cillesen

From: Barcelona

To: Valencia

Transfer fee: €35m

Another surprise entry on this list, one-time Netherlands No.1 Jesper Cillesen couldn't get past Marc-Andre ter Stegen during his three-year stay at Camp Nou, so duly moved to Valencia in the summer of 2019 for €35 million.

At least Cillesen's a goalkeeper, and had more of his career to come than your average outfield player.

=8) Leonardo Bonucci

From: AC Milan

To: Juventus

Transfer fee: €35m

Juventus swept all before them with their famed 'BBC' back three - Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini - but the trio were broken up in 2017 when Bonucci decided to swap Turin for Milan.

Thirty-five mixed performances and a sixth-place finish in Serie A later, and Bonucci was back at Juventus. "It was not useless," Bonucci later reflected of his time at San Siro. "It improved me as a man and made me realise that my calling was at Juventus."

7) Gabriel Batistuta

From: Fiorentina

To: Roma

Transfer fee: €36.2m

The oldest player in this ensemble, we have to go all the way back to 2001 for the seventh-most expensive transfer of a player aged 30 or more with Gabriel Batistuta.

A fearsome striker who led the line for Argentina in three World cups, Batistuta was also fiercely loyal, his nine-year stay with Fiorentina including a season in Serie B in 1993/94. A life-size bronze statue in Florence in place, 'Batigol' moved to Roma in 2000, firing them to the Serie A title.

6) Mats Hummels

From: Bayern Munich

To: Borussia Dortmund

Transfer fee: €37m

One of the world's best centre-backs at the peak of his career, Germany World Cup winner Mats Hummels has yo-yoed between the Bundesliga's two biggest teams at club level, breaking though at Bayern Munich, making his name at Borussia Dortmund, moving back to Bayern in 2016 and then returning to Dortmund three years later.

The last of those moves was the most expensive, Die Schwarzgelben shelling out just shy of €40m to bring him 'home' at the tender age of 30 years and six months in 2019.

5) Radja Nainggolan

From: Roma

To: Inter Milan

Transfer fee: €38m

A cornerstone of Belgium's golden generation alongside the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku, Radja Nainggolan spent much of the last decade considered as one of the best central midfielders in Serie A for his performances with Roma.

Inter paid big money for the then 30-year-old in 2018 in a deal which also included Davide Santon and Nicolo Zaniolo going the other way, but he was soon loaned to Cagliari and only played 40 minutes of their Serie A title-winning campaign in 2021.

4) Paulinho

From: Guangzhou Evergrande

To: Barcelona

Transfer fee: €40m

Paulinho's top-level career looked to be winding down when he swapped Tottenham Hotspur for Guangzhou Evergrande in the summer of 2015, but the Brazilian midfielder played that well in China - plundering 28 goals and 10 assists in two seasons - that Barcelona brought him back to Europe in 2017.

The €40m they paid to do so remains an outright record fee received by a Chinese club. Paulinho helped Barca to a domestic double in 2018 before returning to Guangzhou and helping himself to a further 47 goals and 19 assists before actually winding down his career with Al Ahli and Corinthians.

3) Leonardo Bonucci

From: Juventus

To: AC Milan

Transfer fee: €42m

It's that man Bonucci again. Juventus may have paid €35m to bring the Italy centre-back back into the fold in 2018, but Milan had been that keen to acquire him the previous season that they paid €7m more than that, making him the third-most expensive 30-year-old of all time.

2) Miralem Pjanic

From: Juventus

To: Barcelona

Transfer fee: €65m

Barcelona's financial dire straits are well-documented, the €222m sale of Neymar to PSG in 2017 having a domino effect which left the club more than €1 billion in the hole. Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho might grab the headlines as money not well spent, but Pjanic's fee is eyewatering.

Two months past his 30th birthday when he joined in the summer of 2020, Pjanic struggled at Camp Nou and only made six league starts before leaving on loan for Besiktas at the start of the 2021-22 season.

1) Cristiano Ronaldo

From: Real Madrid

To: Juventus

Transfer fee: €112m

One of the greatest players of all time, and certainly the game's highest scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo has commanded a fee in the region of €100m more than once in his career - to and from Real Madrid with goal-laden spells with Manchester United and Juventus on either side.

His July 2018 move to Juve was the most expensive, the Old Lady paying €112m for an old man who has continued to defy Father Time. Ronaldo scored 101 goals in 134 games with Juve, winning five major trophies in the process.