The money in football has gone a little bit mental. And so we have taken it upon ourselves to look through the historic transfers at the ‘big five’ European leagues – as well as the rest of the world – to bring you the most expensive XIs ever from each.

Premier League

GK: David de Gea (Atletico Madrid to Manchester United, £18.9m)

RB: Glen Johnson (Portsmouth to Liverpool, £17.5m)

CB: John Stones (Everton to Manchester City, £47.5m)

CB: Eliaquim Mangala (Porto to Manchester City, £32m)

LB: Luke Shaw (Southampton to Manchester United, £27m)

DM: Fernandinho (Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester City, £34m)

DM: Paul Pogba (Juventus to Manchester United, £89m)

RW: Angel di Maria (Real Madrid to Manchester United, £59.7m)

AM: Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg to Manchester City, £55m)

LW: Raheem Sterling (Liverpool to Manchester City, £44m)

ST: Fernando Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea, £50m)

TOTAL: £474.6m

La Liga

GK: Jan Oblak (Benfica to Atletico Madrid, £12.6m)

RB: Dani Alves (Sevilla to Barcelona, £23.5m)

CB: Dmytro Chygrynskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk to Barcelona, £21.4m)

CB: Pepe (Porto to Real Madrid, £20.3m)

LB: Fabio Coentrao (Benfica to Real Madrid, £27m)

DM: Xabi Alonso (Liverpool to Real Madrid, £30m)

DM: Luka Modric (Tottenham to Real Madrid, £30m)

RW: Gareth Bale (Tottenham to Real Madrid, £86m)

AM: James Rodriguez (Monaco to Real Madrid, £63m)

LW: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United to Real Madrid, £80m)

ST: Luis Suarez (Liverpool to Barcelona, £75m)

TOTAL: £468.8m

Serie A

GK: Gianluigi Buffon (Parma to Juventus, £32.6m)

RB: Lillian Thuram (Parma to Juventus, £22m)

CB: Alessandro Nesta (Lazio to AC Milan, £21m)

CB: Alessio Romagnoli (Roma to AC Milan, £17.8m)

LB: Alex Sandro (Porto to Juventus, £18.5m)

DM: Miralem Pjanic (Roma to Juventus, £25.4m)

DM: Geoffrey Kondogbia (Monaco to Inter Milan, £25m)

RW: Gaizka Mendieta (Valencia to Lazio, £28m)

AM: Manuel Rui Costa (Fiorentina to AC Milan, £30m)

LW: Pavel Nedved (Lazio to Juventus, £24.7m)

ST: Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli to Juventus, £75.3m)

TOTAL: £320.3m

Bundesliga

GK: Manuel Neuer (Schalke to Bayern Munich, £19m)

RB: Evanilson (Parma to Borussia Dortmund, £10.5m)

CB: Javi Martinez (Athletic Bilbao to Bayern Munich, £31.6m)

CB: Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, £30m)

LB: Raphael Guerreiro (Lorient to Borussia Dortmund, £9.5m)

DM: Arturo Vidal (Juventus to Bayern Munich, £26.1m)

DM: Renato Sanches (Benfica to Bayern Munich, £27.5m)

RW: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Shakhtar Donetsk to Dortmund, £24.4m)

AM: Mario Gotze (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, £31.5m)

LW: Andre Schurrle (Wolfsburg to Borussia Dortmund, £26.9m)

ST: Mario Gomez (Stuttgart to Bayern Munich, £26.2m)

TOTAL: £263.2m

Ligue Un

GK: Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt to Paris Saint-Germain, £6.4m)

RB: Djibril Sidibe (Lille to Monaco, £12.7m)

CB: David Luiz (Chelsea to Paris Saint-Germain, £40m)

CB: Thiago Silva (Milan to Paris Saint-Germain, £33m)

LB: Layvin Kurzawa (Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain, £17.8m)

DM: Grzegorz Krychowiak (Sevilla to Paris Saint-Germain, £25.1m)

DM: Joao Moutinho (Porto to Monaco, £21.5m)

RW: Angel di Maria (Manchester United to Paris Saint-Germain, £44m)

AM: James Rodriguez (Porto to Monaco, £38.5m)

LW: Javier Pastore (Palermo to Paris Saint-Germain, £37m)

ST: Edinson Cavani (Napoli to Paris Saint-Germain, £55.6m)

TOTAL: £331.6m

Rest of the world

GK: Zhang Lu (Liaoning Hongyun to Tianjin Quanjian, £7.3m)

RB: Danilo (Santos to Porto, £10.8m)

CB: Bruno Alves (Porto to Zenit St Petersburg, £18.2m)

CB: Dmytro Chygrynskiy (Barcelona to Shakhtar Donetsk, £12.4m)

LB: Domenico Criscito (Genoa to Zenit St Petersburg, £9.7m)

DM: Axel Witsel (Benfica to Zenit St Petersburg, £32m)

DM: Ramires (Chelsea to Jiangsu Suning, £25m)

RW: Hulk (Zenit St Petersburg to Shanghai SIPG, £46.1m)

AM: Alex Teixeira (Shakhtar Donetsk to Jiangsu Suning, £38m)

LW: Gervinho (Roma to Hebei China Fortune, £13.6m)

ST: Jackson Martinez (Atletico Madrid to Guangzhou Evergrande, £32m)

TOTAL: £245.1m

Matt Stead