Where Retegui stands in top 10 most expensive ever Italy transfers

With Mateo Retegui ready to complete his €68m move from Atalanta to Al-Qadsiah, we look at his place in the top 10 most expensive ever Italy international transfers.

The centre-forward was Capocannoniere in Serie A last season, having been a late addition to the squad for €21m from Genoa after Gianluca Scamacca’s serious knee injury in August 2024.

Now his value has more than tripled for the move to the Saudi Pro League, and at €68m Retegui’s deal becomes the biggest ever transfer fee paid for an Italy international.

He is expected to earn a salary worth an eye-watering €20m per season for the next four years.

Retegui beats Tonali record as costliest ever Italy player

This allows Retegui to beat the previous record, which was set by Sandro Tonali when moving from Milan to Newcastle United for €59m in the summer of 2023.

Another sale to the Premier League was Jorginho for €57m in 2018, when he followed Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri to Chelsea.

The fourth most expensive Italy player was also the costliest to move within the confines of Serie A, as Gianluigi Buffon went from Parma to Juventus for what would be €53m in today’s money back in 2001.

Christian Vieri was at the time of his 1999 transfer from Lazio to Inter the most expensive player in the world, even though the fee was worth currently €46.5m.

Back to the Premier League again, as Arsenal paid €45m to get Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna last summer, making him the sixth costliest Italian in transfer history.

Marco Verratti was a very unusual case, as he never played in Serie A before the move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2012.

However, it was the other transfer, from PSG to Al-Arabi in 2023 for €45m, that puts him seventh in this particular top 10.

Federico Chiesa’s fall from grace is evident after realising Juventus coughed up €44.5m to get him from Fiorentina in 2020.

That was nowhere near as much of a disappointing experience as the one Leonardo Bonucci had when moving from Juventus to Milan in 2017 for €42m, only to return to Turin a year later.

Federico Bernardeschi is the only current Serie A player in the top 10 of most expensive Italians, returning for Bologna as a free agent from Toronto FC.

He is in the list thanks to his €40m move from Fiorentina to Juventus in 2017.