DBasia.news – Players who play as defenders are celebrities in the transfer market this summer. It is not unexpectedly that European defenders have big tags at the moment.
Some examples of big transfers at defender positions are: Eder Militao, Lucas Hernandez, Matthijs de Ligt, and Harry Maguire. Of the four players alone, they have spent more than 200 million euros.
Even if taken from last year, the world’s most expensive defender transfer record was broken by Liverpool when recruiting Virgil van Dijk from Southampton for 75 million pounds or 81 million euros. The record was broken this year.
Recently, Manchester United has helped Liverpool release the burden from Van Dijk’s worth when bringing England national team defender, Harry Maguire, from Leicester City for 80 million pounds or 86 million euros.
Maguire, 26, is the most expensive defender in the world today and ends the beautiful story of United’s struggle in recruiting him. Maguire added to the intense competition in the position of United center back who already had Victor Lindelof, Axel Tuanzebe, Eric Bailly, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, and Chris Smalling.
However, before Maguire anchored at Old Trafford, Juventus had already recruited De Ligt from Ajax Amsterdam for 75 million euros, plus other variables up to 10.5 million euros.
The 19-year-old Dutch center-back became a hot commodity in the 2019 summer transfer window. Barcelona and PSG were linked with De Ligt before the Ajax captain chose the Bianconeri as his new club.
De Ligt will be prepared to become Giorgio Chiellini’s successor and competitive competitors for Leonardo Bonucci, Daniele Rugani, and Merih Demiral.
“De Ligt is a phenomenal player and his departure is inevitable, we know some time ago it will come true and now it really happened. We have to find a replacement,” said Erik ten Hag, Ajax coach, addressing the departure of De Ligt.
In addition to De Ligt and Maguire who seized the attention, previously, Bayern Munich also shocked the public with their courage to make up for the purchase of Lucas clause of 80 million euros. The reason was when Lucas was purchased in an injury condition.
Uli Hoeness, President of Bayern, said that management was regenerating the club’s squad. Lucas, who was only 23 years old, was part of the project with his compatriot, Benjamin Pavard.
De Ligt, Maguire, Lucas, is evidence of how popular the position of a defender is in the transfer market this summer. Their prices are getting higher due to the influence of player price inflation.
The following are the most expensive defenders transferred in 2019 (so far, as quoted from Marca):
– Harry Maguire (Manchester United): 86 million euros
– Lucas Hernandez (Bayern Munchen): 80 million euros
– Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus): 75 million euros
– Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Manchester United): 54 million euros
– Eder Militao (Real Madrid): 50 million euros
– Kostas Manolas (Napoli): 36 million euros
– Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munchen): 35 million euros
– Abdou Diallo (PSG): 31 million euros
– Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund): 30 million euros
– Christian Romero (Juventus): 26 million euros