Bruno Guimarães's £75m Arsenal move breaks Zidane's 25-year-old midfield transfer record

Bruno Guimarães has joined Arsenal in a £75m deal, a fee that sets a new record for the most expensive transfer of a midfielder aged 28 or older. The previous mark had stood for roughly a quarter of a century. It was set when Zinedine Zidane left Juventus for Real Madrid, a move that defined an era of galáctico spending at the Bernabéu. No midfielder of that age had commanded a higher fee in the 25 years since, until now. The scale of the deal says much about how the market has shifted. Arsenal are paying a record sum for a player approaching 30, an age when fees traditionally fall away. That a club was willing to eclipse a benchmark set by Zidane's move to Madrid underlines both Guimarães's standing in the game and the inflation that has transformed transfer spending at the top level.

Guimarães's £75m Arsenal move sets a midfield transfer record

Bruno Guimarães has joined Arsenal for £75m, a fee that makes his transfer the most expensive ever for a midfielder aged at least 28. The move takes the record away from Zinedine Zidane, whose switch from Juventus to Real Madrid had stood as the benchmark in that category for roughly 25 years.

The £75m figure is the headline number. It is the amount Arsenal have paid to sign the midfielder, and it surpasses what Real Madrid spent to bring Zidane from Juventus a quarter of a century ago. Until now, that deal had remained the priciest involving a midfielder of 28 or older.

Guimarães's arrival at Arsenal therefore rewrites the top of that particular transfer list. The buying club is Arsenal, the fee is £75m, and the record broken is the one Zidane's move to Real Madrid had held since it was completed some 25 years earlier.

The Zidane record that stood for 25 years

Before Guimarães, the benchmark belonged to Zinedine Zidane. The French playmaker left Juventus for Real Madrid roughly 25 years earlier, in a deal that made him the most expensive midfielder aged 28 or older in football history. That record held through more than two decades of escalating transfer fees, surviving an era in which spending across the European game climbed relentlessly.

The longevity of Zidane's mark is striking. His move to the Bernabéu came at the height of Real Madrid's galácticos project, when the club was assembling some of the biggest names in world football. Yet no midfielder of comparable age commanded a higher fee in the quarter-century that followed. Guimarães's £75m switch to Arsenal finally displaces a record that had stood since the turn of the millennium, underlining how rarely players in that age bracket attract fees of that scale.