Tottenham Hotspur has had some great players on the books over the years, but it’s hard to say that any star in modern history has been greater than Harry Kane, who departed the club after a career of clinical service last summer.
Behind only Alan Shearer in the Premier League’s all-time scoring charts and behind no one in the goalscoring rankings for Tottenham and England, the 30-year-old is truly one of the finest forwards of his generation – it’s sad to see him ply his trade away from N17.
How much Spurs sold Kane for
Kane had been on Tottenham’s books since his youth and scored 280 goals and supplied 64 assists from 435 matches as a Lilywhite before transferring to Bayern Munich in a deal worth an initial £82m last August, with just one year remaining on his current deal.
Spurs had endured a torrid 2022/23 campaign and languished to an eighth-placed Premier League finish to end any hopes of the Three Lions skipper’s remaining at the club, falling by the wayside despite his 30-goal haul in the top-flight.
There are suggestions that Kane’s fee could rise to £100m in what would make him the most expensive Tottenham sale in history, surpassing the then-world-record £85m fee Real Madrid paid for Gareth Bale’s services way back in 2013.
However, there’s another one-time star who would have overtaken Kane’s figure had the deal been conducted in modern times. The man in question is none other than Paul Gascoigne.
Paul Gascoigne’s market value in 2024 money
Spurs signed Gascoigne from Newcastle United in a British-record £2.2m deal back in 1988, with the prodigious talent excelling after graduating from the Magpies academy.
The iconic Englishman would plunder 33 goals from 112 appearances for Tottenham before moving to Italian outfit Lazio for around £6m in 1992. This was a mammoth figure at the time; how hefty would that be in modern times?
If you’re a footballing nerd like us and have ever wondered, thankfully Totally Money have got it all covered.
Inflation has been a prominent factor within football across the past few decades, and for such a stunning star in Gascoigne, it’s clear that he would have garnered quite the fee if he plied his trade today.
Totally Money project that Lazio would have had to pay a whopping £94m to procure his signature today, taking him above even the sale of Kane.
Spurs record sales in the modern market
Player (year sold)
Original fee
Cost in 2024
Gareth Bale
£85m
£166m
Paul Gascoigne
£6m
£94m
Dimitar Berbatov
£34m
£89m
Michael Carrick
£24m
£84.5m
Luka Modric
£31.5m
£84m
Numbers via Totally Money
While this also elevates him above Bale, Totally Money’s model has also deduced that the legendary Welshman would have cost Real Madrid £166m today, so it’s not really fair to include him too.
Gascoigne was one of the most breathtaking, brilliant talents in football’s long history, with some of the game’s greats, such as Xavi, claiming that the 56-year-old was his “inspiration”, and thus it’s not hard to believe that he would have cost a ridiculous wad of cash to part with the Lilywhites way back when.