BVB access Haller breaks the record: Most expensive center forward in the Bundesliga

Over 30 million for the first time

What was already the order of the day in Serie A, LaLiga or Ligue 1 around the turn of the millennium is now also reality in the Bundesliga: more than 30 million euros were paid for a trained centre-forward. BVB newcomer Sébastien Haller (28) is this striker. A fee of EUR 31 million plus EUR 3.5 million in possible bonuses will flow towards Ajax Amsterdam for the former Frankfurt player – the sum has been confirmed by the Eredivisie champions and makes him the most expensive center forward signing in Bundesliga history.

“The overall package is very promising,” said sporting director Sebastian Kehl. That’s certainly what you thought at Borussia Dortmund when you presented a new “Nine” a number of times, because no other club in the history of the Bundesliga digged into their pockets as often and as deeply for center forwards as BVB. Most of the time you had a good hand.

In the past twelve months alone, with Haller, Karim Adeyemi (20) and Donyell Malen (23), Borussia made three of the four most expensive Bundesliga purchases in the storm center. The only flop in this ranking is the 18.5 million transfer Ciro Immobile (32), who was simply not happy in Dortmund in 2014 – just as he was at FC Sevilla. Back home, he has been shooting Serie A at Lazio since 2016. It wasn’t a very expensive mistake, because the bottom line was a transfer minus of only 4.5 million euros.

With Alcacer & Werner
Most expensive center forward in the BundesligaTo overview
Some clubs appear only once among the Bundesliga clubs with the highest spending on centre-forwards, such as FC Schalke, who brought the then 19-year-old Breel Embolo (25) from FC Basel in 2016 for the club’s record transfer fee of 26.5 million euros or Hertha BSC, which transferred 24 million euros to AC Milan for Krzysztof Piatek (27) in the winter transfer window of the 2020 departure.

Piatek’s market value has since fallen by 20 million to 12 million euros – a transfer that can safely be described as a bad buy, while Embolo should be judged less harshly due to its young age. Nevertheless, Schalke recorded a large transfer minus when reselling in 2019 for 11 million euros to Gladbach.

FC Bayern only dug deep into their pockets twice: Makaay & Gomez hit

FC Bayern only appears twice in this list and twice the transfers were successful, because both Mario Gómez (36), who came from VfB Stuttgart for 30 million euros, and Roy Makaay (47) were successful. Makaay shot Bayern in a La Coruna shirt a few months before his Champions League transfer and was rewarded with a €19.75m transfer in 2003.

A parallel to Haller, because the national player from Ivory Coast also scored twice against BVB in the “premier class” 2021/22 and prepared two goals. Parallel number two: Both Makaay and Haller switched as full-time players at the age of 28 – a rarity among the most expensive Bundesliga purchases for the storm center. With his move, Haller even set another record, because with 116.3 million euros he is now the African footballer with the highest transfer earnings in history. For this he needed five changes.

To home page