Chelsea quickly found a successor to Thomas Tuchel in Graham Potter. For the 47-year-old Englishman, the Blues were willing to open their wallets wide. Chelsea paid the equivalent of 17.3 million euros to Brighton. This makes Potter the second most expensive trainer of all time. Top 10 coaches paid the highest transfer fees:
The Reds paid around 5.5 million euros for Jürgen Klopp’s predecessor in the summer of 2012. Rodgers came to Anfield from Swansea City and almost fulfilled his championship dreams in Liverpool – until Steven Gerrard slipped up. Rodgers was on the LFC touchline for 166 games. His point average of 1.77 per game was quite impressive.
We remember Ronald Koeman mainly because of his unhappy time at FC Barcelona. The former bond coach was previously active in England. Everton FC also paid around 5.5 million euros for the former world-class defender in the summer of 2016. However, Koeman did not stay in office for too long. In October 2017, the toffees were over again.
The Italian with a penchant for cigarettes should have his famous “Sarri-Ball” played with the Blues from 2018. Chelsea also paid 5.5 million euros to SSC Napoli at the time. After just one season at Chelsea, Sarri’s time was over – despite a strong average of 2.08 points per game and the Europa League title. He went on to Juve and since the summer of 2021 to Lazio Rome.
The Austrian’s move from the Main to the Lower Rhine was accompanied by some turmoil. The then sports director Max Eberl snapped up the 52-year-old for a whopping 7.5 million euros with an exit clause. In Gladbach he was supposed to replace Marco Rose, who in turn switched to BVB for five million euros. A season of bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdowns followed, in which Gladbach was temporarily stuck in the relegation swamp. Hütter had to go and was replaced by Daniel Farke.
The Special One moved on to Los Blancos in 2010 after winning the treble with the Nerazzurri. Real Madrid paid eight million euros for Mourinho. In three years at the Bernabeu, however, there was no big hit in the Champions League. After all, the Portuguese became Spanish champions, cup winners and super cup winners with Blancos.
The only 37-year-old Portuguese is very much appreciated at home. Sporting was so impressed by his coaching work in Braga that he was released from his league rivals for a whopping ten million euros. So far with success: Amorim won the championship with the capitals in 2021 and added three cup successes (two League Cups, one Super Cup). For the green-whites it was the first championship since 2002!
Rodgers again. The 49-year-old went from success to success with Celtic Glasgow. Then, in February 2019, the Foxes struck. Leicester City transferred €10.5m to Glasgow and brought Rodgers back to the Premier League. In 2021, the success story was rewarded with the FA Cup title. The Foxes are currently in deep trouble with Rodgers…
Villas-Boas has already been hyped as the new Mourinho after a terrific season as Porto coach. Almost as a logical consequence, Chelsea FC struck in 2011 and snapped up the Portuguese shooting star among the coaches. The Blues paid a fee of 15 million euros! But Villas-Boas could not write a similar success story as Mourinho at Stamford Bridge. A year and a half later he had to leave.
Eleven years after Villas-Boas, the Blues opened up Graham Potter’s purse even further. Around 17.3 million euros was paid to Brighton for the new owner’s dream coach
The transfer record among the coaches remains with Julian Nagelsmann. After Hansi Flick’s withdrawal, you had to pay a lot of money to lure sports director Hasan Salihamidzic’s dream coach to Säbener Straße. In total, FC Bayern probably paid 25 million euros to Leipzig.
This article was originally published on 90min.com as Top 10: Highest Coach Transfer Fees in Football History.
