Liverpool consistently challenged for football's biggest honours at the peak of Jurgen Klopp’s nine-year stint on Merseyside. They also did so with a tighter budget compared to the likes of Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea.
In his first season at the Anfield helm, Liverpool boss Arne Slot will be hoping to make the same shrewd moves that his predecessor did. However, that is not to say Klopp never made a marquee purchase when he needed to – nor did he get it right every time, as some of the names in this list will show.
Liverpool most expensive signings: The top 5
| Player | Joined from | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇾 Darwin Núñez (ST) |
Benfica |
£72m |
| 🇳🇱 Virgil van Dijk (CB) |
Southampton |
£72m |
| 🇭🇺 Dominik Szoboszlai (CAM) |
RB Leipzig |
£60m |
| 🇧🇷 Alisson (GK) |
AS Roma |
£53m |
| 🇬🇳 Naby Keita (CM) |
RB Leipzig |
£51m |
1) Darwin Nunez – £72m
Honours with Liverpool: EFL Cup (2024)
Topping our list is Liverpool's number nine, Darwin Núñez. The Uruguay striker was signed for a £72m base fee in 2022 from Benfica. His transfer included significant add-ons that could see his final fee rise substantially.
Though he is a powerful striker with good speed, agility and strength, the 25-year-old has had mixed fortunes at Anfield so far. In the Premier League, he is averaging roughly a goal contribution every other game (0.46 per game in September 2024)
Last season he averaged 0.52 goals/assists per league match, though this figure could have been much higher. That it wasn’t is down to Núñez’s ever-lingering inconsistency, with some glaring misses in front of goal costing Liverpool dearly as they slipped out of the title race.
2) Virgil van Dijk – £72m
Honours with Liverpool: UEFA Champions League (2019), FIFA Club World Cup (2019), Premier League (2020), FA Cup (2022), EFL Cup (2022, 2024)
There is no disputing that Virgil van Dijk is value for money. The 33-year-old Dutch international has been arguably one of the best central defenders in Europe in his almost seven-year stint on Merseyside, and fell just short of winning the Ballon d'Or.
Van Dijk's £72m fee was questioned when he joined from Southampton in January 2018, but all doubts have long been vanquished. In his prime, the former Celtic defender was the complete package – physically dominant, intelligent, calm, skilled with the ball at his feet and blessed with searing recovery pace in a crisis.
Some would assert that he has lost a yard in the past couple of seasons. And he too felt the malaise late last season, when Klopp announced his departure and the Reds saw a promising thrust for the quadruple extinguished.
3) Dominik Szoboszlai – £60m
Honours with Liverpool: EFL Cup (2024)
Liverpool splashed the cash to replace outgoing captain Jordan Henderson in 2023, bringing in talented Hungarian midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai.
Joining from RB Leipzig for £60m, Szoboszlai made an immediate impression on the Anfield faithful with phenomenal strikes from distance against Leicester City and West Ham.
Overall though, his performances have been a little more middling, as the 23-year-old suffered from injuries in the second half of the 2023/24 season.
4) Alisson – £53m
Honours with Liverpool: UEFA Champions League (2019), FIFA Club World Cup (2019), Premier League (2020), FA Cup (2022), EFL Cup (2022)
Arguably just as transformational a signing as van Dijk, Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson has repaid every penny of the fee that brought him from Roma with considerable interest. His debut campaign (2018/19) was a particularly fine vintage, as he broke the existing record number of league clean sheets for a goalkeeper in his debut PL season.
His heroics would ultimately see Liverpool claim Europe’s ultimate honour for a sixth time. And he became a Premier League title winner just a year later, though his job was made far easier by a rampant Liverpool attack that very few teams dared go toe-to-toe with.
Alisson has always made match-winning saves and distributed tidily with his feet. He is aggressive too, claiming long balls and crosses, and even scored a late winner against West Brom in March 2021 to help secure a Champions League odyssey that so nearly ended in a seventh European crown for Liverpool.
5) Naby Keita – £51m
Honours with Liverpool: UEFA Champions League (2019), FIFA Club World Cup (2019), Premier League (2020), FA Cup (2022), EFL Cup (2022)
Another signing from RB Leipzig, Liverpool splashed out on Naby Keita in 2018 after two superb Bundesliga campaigns. Keita was supposed to reinvigorate the Reds' midfield, and add more guile and creativity to their more functional, high-pressing side of the time.
But unfortunately for Keita, he could never really get into a steady rhythm on Merseyside, as he suffered from injury after injury. The Guinean never made more than 16 Premier League starts in a season, and only made 84 league appearances over his five years at the club.
