History of how the football transfer record was broken over the last century

#2 1928-1951: Professional players in high demand

David Jack (C) was the first player to be transferred for over £10,000

In 1928, Arsenal would become the first club to spend a five-figure sum to sign David Jack from Bolton Wanderers. Gunners manager Herbert Chapman took advantage of Bolton’s financial troubles at the time to sign the forward and legend has it that he got Bolton’s club officials very drunk to bring the price down to an ‘affordable’ £10,890! It would pay off as Jack helped Arsenal win their first ever league title in the 1930/31 season. He would score more than 100 goals for the club before retiring in 1934.

By now football was slowly catching on around the world and South America was not far behind. In Argentina, Bernabe Ferreyra would be one of the country’s first ever football stars and the forward’s transfer from Club Atletico Tigre to River Plate. The transfer would be a huge success as River Plate won three league titles with his help. Ferreyra would own the transfer record for 17 years before Johnny Morris and Eddie Quigley broke the record in quick succession in 1949.

By 1950, clubs were much bolder (along with inflation) as league football became popular again following World War II and Trevor Ford was the first player to be sold for £30,000.

Year	Player	From	To	Amount
1928	David Jack	Bolton Wanderers	Arsenal	£10.8K
1932	Bernabe Ferreyra	Club Atletico Tigre	River Plate	£23K
1949	Johnny Morris	Manchester United	Derby County	£24K
1949	Eddie Quigley	Sheffield Wednesday	Preston North End	£26.5K
1950	Trevor Ford	Aston Villa	Sunderland	£30K
1951	Jackie Sewell	Notts County	Sheffield Wednesday	£34.5K