Romelu Lukaku is now the most expensive footballer after his move to Chelsea

Chelsea's new signing, Romelu Lukaku has become the most expensive footballer ever over the course of his career following his return to Stamford Bridge.

Lukaku’s £98million move to Chelsea on Thursday takes his cumulative transfers to almost £285million, passing Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar for top spot on the list, PA news agency reports.

The study used transfer fees listed on respected website transfermarkt.com which were then converted from euros into sterling using the exchange rate at the time of the move.

Using that method, Lukaku’s initial move to Chelsea from Anderlecht in 2011 is listed at just over £13m, with £3m recouped from Everton as a loan fee before 2014’s permanent move for £28m.

The 28-year-old’s moves to Manchester United and then on to Inter Milan cost a reported £75m and around £68.3m respectively, with this latest move taking him to £284.8m in cumulative fees.

That is around £8.5m more than Neymar, who joined Barcelona from Santos for £75.7m in 2013 and moved on to PSG four years later for a world-record £200.6m.

Meanwhile, third on the list is Juventus’s Cristiano Ronaldo with £197.6m cumulative transfer fees, having moved from Sporting to Manchester United, Real Madrid and now Juventus.

Below is top ten most expensive footballers ever by cumulative transfer fees:

Romelu Lukaku – £284.8m
Neymar – £276.3m
Cristiano Ronaldo – £197.6m
Alvaro Morata – £164.6m
Ousmane Dembele – £154.3m
Antoine Greizmann – £150.4m
Phillippe Coutinho – £141.0m
Angel Di Maria – £136.7m
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – £135.3m
Gonzalo Higuain – £132.9m