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How many players have scored centuries in their 99th and 101st Tests?

Steven Lynch17-Jan-2017Hashim Amla joined the club of players who scored a century in their 100th Test match. How many have scored centuries in their 99th and/or 101st Test? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa

Hashim Amla’s 134 against Sri Lanka in Johannesburg last week made him the eighth batsman to score a century in his 100th Test, after Ricky Ponting (who made two in 2005-06), Colin Cowdrey (1968), Gordon Greenidge and Javed Miandad (both 1989-90), Alec Stewart (2000), Inzamam-ul-Haq (2004-05) and Graeme Smith (2012). Ponting had also scored a century in his 99th Test, while Inzamam added one in his 101st. Brian Lara (2003-04) and Mahela Jayawardene (2008-09) both scored hundreds in their 99th and 101st Test matches. Eight others reached three figures in their 99th Test: Sunil Gavaskar (1983-84), Mohammad Azharuddin (in what turned out to be his last match, in 1999-2000), Sachin Tendulkar (2002), Gary Kirsten (2003-04), Sourav Ganguly (2007-08), VVS Laxman (2008-09), Virender Sehwag (2012-13) and Michael Clarke (2013-14). Ganguly, who made 239, Gavaskar, Lara and Laxman all reached 200. Apart from Inzamam, Jayawardene and Lara, six others made centuries in their 101st Test: Viv Richards (1988-89), Stephen Fleming (who scored 262 in 2004-05), Justin Langer (2006-07), Kumar Sangakkara (2011-12), Younis Khan (2015) and Brendon McCullum (2015-16).Is it right that Virat Kohli now has more hundreds in successful run-chases even than Sachin Tendulkar? asked Praful Patel from India

Virat Kohli’s 122 in that exciting match against England in Pune on Sunday was his 15th century in 63 successful chases – one more than Sachin Tendulkar managed in more than twice as many matches (127). Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya and Saeed Anwar all scored nine hundreds in successful chases, while Chris Gayle, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting made eight. Sunday’s century was Kohli’s 17th in ODIs while batting second, equaling Tendulkar’s record. Dilshan and Gayle made 11, and Jayasuriya and Saeed Anwar ten.Bangladesh’s 595 in Wellington was their second-highest Test total•Getty ImagesShakib Al Hasan’s 217 against New Zealand meant he has scored a double-century and taken seven wickets in an innings in Tests. How many people have managed this? asked Azam Hossain from Bangladesh

Some nifty work from ardent Facebooker Michael Jones saved me the trouble of looking this up: Shakib’s 217 in Wellington the other day, which followed his 7 for 36 against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2008-09, made his only the ninth player to have managed a double-century and a seven-for in Tests. The others are the Australians Allan Border and Jason Gillespie, Ian Botham of England, India’s Vinoo Mankad, Wasim Akram of Pakistan, the South African Aubrey Faulkner, and the West Indian pair of Denis Atkinson and Frank Worrell. Mankad actually managed two centuries and two eight-fors, while Botham had one double to go with two eight-fors.Clarrie Grimmett took 11 wickets in his first Test and 13 in his last. Has anyone done better than this? asked John Hackett from New Zealand

The Australian legspinner Clarrie Grimmett marked his Test debut, aged 33 in 1924-25, with 5 for 45 and 6 for 37 against England in the final Test of the 1924-25 Ashes, and signed off with 7 for 100 and 6 for 73 v South Africa in Durban in 1935-36, when he was 44. The only other man to take ten wickets in his first and last Tests was England’s Tom Richardson, who started with 5 for 49 and 5 for 107 against Australia at Old Trafford in 1893, and finished with 8 for 94 and 2 for 110 in Sydney in 1897-98. The only man to take more wickets than Grimmett in his last Test was England’s Sydney Barnes, with 14 for 144 – 7 for 56 and 7 for 88 – against South Africa in Durban in 1913-14.England fast bowler Tom Richardson is one of only two bowlers to take ten wickets in his first and last Tests•Getty ImagesWas Bangladesh’s 595 at the Basin their highest Test total? asked Brett Carter from New Zealand

Bangladesh’s 595 for 8 declared in the first innings in Wellington at the weekend was actually their second-highest total in Tests – they made 638 against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2012-13. Mushfiqur Rahim made 200 in that one, Bangladesh’s first double-century. Tamim Iqbal improved on that with 206 against Pakistan in Khulna in April 2015, but Shakib Al Hasan’s 217 in Wellington now tops the list. Bangladesh’s highest total at home is 556, against West Indies in Mirpur in 2012-13, although they came within one of that in Khulna when Tamim made his double-hundred. New Zealand’s 539 was their third total of 500 or more against Bangladesh (their record remains 553 for 7 declared in Hamilton in 2009-10), and their third-highest in Wellington after 680 for 8 declared against India in 2013-14 (when Brendon McCullum hit 302), and 671 for 4 v Sri Lanka in 1990-91 (when Martin Crowe made 299).Who was the last man born in England to score a Test century for Australia? asked Jarrod Harte from Australia

This question was obviously inspired by Yorkshire-born Matt Renshaw, who piled up 184 for Australia against Pakistan in Sydney early in January. He’s only the fourth English-born batsman to score a century for Australia, but it’s not very long since the last one – Andrew Symonds, who was born in Birmingham, made two Test tons to go with six in one-day internationals. The other two, though, were from way back: Charles Bannerman, who scored an undefeated 165 in the very first Test of all, in Melbourne in 1876-77, and Percy McDonnell, who made three Test hundreds against England in the 1880s, were both born in London. Archie Jackson, who stroked a brilliant 164 on debut against England in Adelaide in 1928-29, was born in Rutherglen in Scotland, while Tom Horan, who scored 124 against England in Melbourne in 1881-82, was born in County Cork in Ireland. The only other overseas-born batsman to score a Test century for Australia is Kepler Wessels (born in Bloemfontein in South Africa) who made four, including 162 on debut against England in Brisbane in 1982-83.Post your questions in the comments below

Stats highlights from the first T20I between India and South Africa in Dharamsala

Shiva Jayaraman02-Oct-20151:28

By the numbers – Duminy’s fastest T20I fifty

200 Target chased successfully by South Africa, the second time they have chased a target of 200 or more in T20Is. The highest score they have chased is 206, against West Indies in the 2007 World T20. Besides these two occasions, South Africa have conceded a target of 200-plus only once, against Australia at the Gabba in 2006.1 Centuries in T20Is by India batsman before Rohit Sharma’s 106. Suresh Raina had made 101 against the same opposition in a league match during the 2010 World T20. Rohit’s century in this match was the fourth by a batsman against South Africa in T20Is. Rohit’s ton is also the third highest score to come in a losing cause in T20Is.28 Number of balls taken by JP Duminy to reach his fifty, the fastest of his eight fifties in T20Is. Duminy’s strike-rate of 200 also equals his highest when he has faced 10 or more balls in a T20 match.136 India’s previous highest stand in T20Is, which was between Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in the 2007 World T20. Rohit and Kohli added 138 runs in this game, which is also the third highest stand against South Africa in T20Is.57.40 Rohit’s batting average in T20Is against South Africa; he has made 287 runs including one hundred and two fifties in six innings against them. Among batsmen with at least 150 runs against any opposition, none average better than Rohit against South Africa.27 Number of innings taken by Virat Kohli to complete 1000 T20I runs. He is the fastest to the landmark, having reached it in five innings fewer than the previous quickest batsmen to it. England’s Alex Hales and Kevin Pietersen both did it in 32 innings. Kohli is the first India batsman to complete 1000 T20I runs and the 20th overall to do so.186 India’s previous highest total against South Africa in T20Is, which had come in the 2010 World T20. India’s 199 for 5 today is their fourth highest total in T20Is.11 Sixes conceded by South Africa in this match, the second highest they have conceded in a T20I. West Indies hit 12 sixes in an innings against them on two separate occasions. The number of sixes South Africa conceded in this match also equaled the second highest number of sixes India have hit in a T20I.67 Runs conceded by India in the Powerplays, the third highest they have conceded in these overs in any T20I and the most they have conceded in a Powerplay without taking a wicket. They had conceded 74 runs against Australia in 2013, the most they have conceded in the Powerplays in any T20I.105 Runs added by the stand between Farhaan Behardien and Duminy, South Africa’s highest fourth-wicket stand in T20Is, and also the fifth highest stand for South Africa for any wicket while chasing.20 Sixes hit in this match, the most in a T20I in India. While India hit 11 sixes, South Africa contributed nine. The previous most sixes hit in a T20I in India were 17, in a game between the hosts and Sri Lanka in Mohali, in 2009.7 Sixes hit by Duminy in this match, which equaled the most hit by a batsman against India in a T20I. Four other batsmen have hit seven sixes in a match against India. Duminy’s seven sixes were also the joint third highest by any South Africa batsman in a T20I. Richard Levi’s 13 sixes against New Zealand in a match in 2012 are the highest.

Perhaps it is the cooler mountain air or the smell of rain – whatever the difference, Tillakaratne Dilshan can’t get enough of Pallekele

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Pallekele09-Jul-2014Pallekele is not a difficult place to like. The road from Kandy winds over rolling mountains, through lush tropical flora still beaded with droplets from the last rains. Troupes of Sri Lankan macaques loiter like rogues on village shop rooves, waiting to swing down when the shopkeeper takes his eyes off the bananas. Even on a clunking government bus or a rickety three-wheeler, the serenity of the surrounds is irresistible.The ground itself is nestled in the Dumbara mountain range and flanked by tree-lined grass banks. Once, at its conception, an architect had hoped the stadium would turn out like Supersport Park in South Africa. When crowds file in and the venue becomes an island of buzz and for the evening, there can be no doubts it is all Sri Lankan. Some days the setting sun scatters scarlet over the western curve of sky and, then, there are few better places in the world to be – let alone for cricket.Tillakaratne Dilshan likes it here too. For all those reasons, but for others that make the ground truly special for him, as well. He has now scored 768 runs at the venue at an average of 96.00 and a strike rate of 93.09.When he plays at Pallekele now, he bats as if the runs are a birthright. Dilshan’s cricket has mellowed over the last 18 months, with his strike rate down year-on-year since 2011 even as his run tallies have swelled, but Pallekele rarely fails to summon the savage of old. He still strikes at 93 at the ground since the beginning of 2013, but scores at a rate of 79 elsewhere.He was off the mark with a scorching stroke through mid-on, off Dale Steyn, in the first over. Out of all his shots, that on-drive has given him the most grief in his later years; the bat often collecting fresh air as the ball cannons into the stumps. At times, he has avoided playing the shot, but at this ground, he unlocks his full arsenal. He is bulletproof here.Even early in his innings, even off one of the finest quick bowlers in world cricket, Dilshan dares to play the on-drive, and knows he will succeed. He still plays the ‘Dilscoop’ regularly at Pallekele, when it has eased out of his game elsewhere. In 2011, he unfurled perhaps an even more astonishing shot than that at the ground, when he swept Shane Watson’s medium pace high and long in front of square for six.Dilshan struggles to put his finger on exactly what works for him at Pallekele. The pitch is faster than most others in the subcontinent, but not as fast as in Hambantota, where he has a far less fearsome record. There is swing and seam to be had early on for the bowlers, as well as spin later on. Perhaps it began fortuitously with a few good innings at the venue, which then snowballed into an avalanche of good vibes. Whenever he visits now, he does not just hope, he expects to excel.”When I come here, everyone trusts that I will do well,” Dilshan said. “Even today before I went out to bat, my captain to told me, ‘You’ll get runs today as well’. I enjoy playing cricket everywhere, but here I get a good feeling that I’ll be getting runs. The more we play here, the better I’ll be able to do. I’ve already asked my captain to request more matches here.”The wickets were a birthright too, on this occasion. He had already broken the third-wicket partnership that had sunk Sri Lanka in the first match when he had AB de Villiers caught at long-on, but he yearned for the biggest scalp of the innings as well.When team-mates shelled two difficult chances off Hashim Amla inside three balls in his following over, Dilshan cursed loudly, turned back to his mark and kicked out twice at the turf, seething. Dilshan is perhaps the most spirited man in the Sri Lanka team, but even for him, such eruptions are rare. He could not tolerate others preventing him from claiming what was his. “Even with the ball, I feel like I can do something on this pitch,” he said.Dilshan’s 86 off 90 was both impetus and backbone in Sri Lanka’s innings, and it was his dismissal of de Villiers that sparked the South Africa slide of five wickets for 26 runs, and sent the visitors careening towards defeat. Perhaps it is the cooler mountain air. Perhaps it is the smell of rain, which is never far off. Whatever the difference is, Dilshan can’t get enough of Pallekele.

Reggie Duff was the first No. 10 batsman to score a century on Test debut, but the rest of his career and his life didn’t quite match that glittering start

Steven Lynch02-Dec-2012The unlikely achievement of the Bangladesh fast bowler Abul Hasan, who hit a stunning century on debut from No. 10 in the batting order against West Indies in Khulna last week, set off a landslide of enquiries. How many No. 10s had scored a century in a Test? And surely none of them could have done so on debut?The answer is that three men had previously made Test tons from No. 10. The Surrey allrounder Walter Read was the first, with 117 against Australia at The Oval in 1884, “a superb display of hard and rapid hitting”, according to Wisden. The genial South African offspinner Pat Symcox was the last, scoring 108 against Pakistan in Johannesburg in 1997-98. And in between, the New South Welshman Reggie Duff made 104 for Australia in Melbourne in the second Ashes Test of 1901-02 – on his debut.Duff remains a mysterious figure, little written about despite this fine start. The main reason for this is his early death, in December 1911 (just as another Ashes series was about to get under way). Less than four years later, Duff’s long-time opening partner Victor Trumper also died: he was widely mourned, and the crowd at his funeral stretched halfway across Sydney. Duff, however, was laid to rest rather more quietly, some of his former team-mates and colleagues from the Sydney Harbour Trust among the few in attendance.The main reason was that, while Trumper succumbed to kidney disease, Duff’s illness was self-inflicted – he was too fond of a drink. The Australian newspaper the Referee tiptoed carefully around the unmentionable in a style typical of the period: “Some few years back, he did not take that care of his health necessary for one wishing to live a normal life in years and in vigour.”Duff’s Test debut was indeed sensational, although it should be stressed that he was really a batsman – he usually went in first – but found himself at No. 10 after the Australian batting order was reshuffled in a successful attempt to avoid the worst of a pitch soaked by torrential rain on New Year’s Eve (the match itself started on January 1). Duff had already top-scored with 32 (from No. 7) while Australia made 112, but they had to go in again after England – hitting out wildly – were skittled for 61. In all, 25 wickets tumbled for 221 runs on that madcap first day, but conditions were much more suitable for batting on the second. Duff went in at 167 for 8, but helped add 186 more runs, including a last-wicket stand of 120 with Warwick Armstrong – another debutant, and another proper batsman. The lead stretched to 404, which proved far beyond England.Duff’s start, then, was romantic – but he had been a surprise choice for the match in the first place, after only one century in his 13 first-class matches. Gideon Haigh, in his forensic autobiography of Armstrong, unearthed an evocative account of Duff’s selection, written by the former Australian captain Tom Horan, whose regular newspaper cricket column appeared under the pen name “Felix”:

“Bob McLeod, Syd Gregory and Reg Duff were walking down Collins Street near the Town Hall. ‘I wonder,’ said Syd, ‘am I in the team?’ ‘I’ll go up to the Argus office and see,’ said Bob. Up he went, got the information, and was himself staggered that Duff was in. Turning to Syd, he said: ‘You’re in, Syd.’ Then turning to Duff: ‘And so are you, Duff.’ Duff looked fixedly at Bob and replied with the most forceful contradiction he could frame. But he was in.”

His greatest partnerships had been for NSW and Australia with Trumper. Duff knew his place in their liaisons, once joking that “Victor is taking me out for a run again”… but he often went shot for shot with Trumper

And Duff remained in for the next three series, scoring consistently – although the only other century to go with his debut one came in what turned out to be his final Test, at The Oval in 1905, when his 146 set up a draw. “He played a great innings, his driving a marvel of power and cleanness,” enthused Wisden.But that was it. Duff never scored another century, and in fact played only eight more matches after that tour: although he was 12th man for the first Test of the 1907-08 Ashes series Down Under, he did not feature, and faded out after that season as his problems with alcohol hit home. Around this time, the future Test legspinner Arthur Mailey (then in his early twenties) spotted him in the street: “I saw one of my heroes, Reg Duff, meandering down the Chinese quarters in Haymarket, Sydney, shabbily dressed and with his hair poking through his straw hat.” When Duff died, penniless, the Australian team had a whip-round to cover his funeral expenses, while the NSW cricket association paid for his headstone.His greatest partnerships had been for NSW and Australia with Trumper, who is even now remembered (while Duff is all but forgotten) as one of the great classical batsmen. Duff knew his place in their liaisons, once joking that “Victor is taking me out for a run again” as they embarked on another Test innings. But he was being rather modest, as he often went shot for shot with Trumper.Duff was on the short side, but a fine cutter and driver on the up. During the 1902 tour of England, the Australians posed for a series of action photographs for the Middlesex amateur George Beldam. The shots of Trumper, especially the iconic one of him jumping down the pitch to drive, have become legendary: but the Australian writer Jack Pollard suggested that the images of Duff from the same series “show a similar audacity and mastery of technique”.Other photographs reveal Duff as a man of saturnine countenance, with the obligatory moustache of the day (“turned up at the ends, Kaiser-like,” according to Mailey). CB Fry described him characteristically colourfully: “Reggie Duff had a face like a good-looking brown trout, and was full of Australian sunshine.” Sadly, he was also too often full of Australian liquor, which did for him in the end.10:54:34 GMT, December 2, 2012: The subheadline originally said Duff was the first batsman to score a century on debut

First Bangladesh’s tail ran them ragged and then the batting struggled to force the pace as England produced an insipid second day

Andrew Miller in Dhaka21-Mar-2010There’s still plenty time for England to get their act together and stage the recovery they require to maintain their 100% record against Bangladesh, but right at this moment they are flirting with embarrassment.All winter long, attrition has been England’s preferred approach to Test-match batting – whether it has been to save a contest, as at Centurion and Cape Town, or to win, as at Durban and Chittagong. So their chosen tempo on the second day at Dhaka came as no surprise. It did, however, look mighty peculiar when set against the efforts of their supposedly inferior Bangladeshi counterparts.On the one hand, Bangladesh’s No. 10, Shafiul Islam, spent the first hour of the day tonking England’s attack to all corners of Mirpur – or, to be precise, the corners at third man and extra cover, both of which were left unmanned as England’s rookie captain, Alastair Cook, endured a morning to forget. On the other hand, Jonathan Trott ground his way to a 147-ball fifty – an landmark that ate up exactly 100 more deliveries than Shafiul’s, having spent almost as long on 0 (33 deliveries) as his counterpart, Tamim Iqbal, had required to reach his own half-century (34).It’s a state of affairs that has left Bangladesh in command of the contest without quite having full control, and while the last laugh remains to be claimed in three days’ time, the hosts are doing well to stifle their giggles at present. With Shakib Al Hasan leaking barely a run an over from his first 24 of the match, they’ve got their opponents right where a four-spin attack would want them – scraping for runs on a sparse and slow surface, with a sizeable deficit still towering overhead.”I wouldn’t say we’re evens,” said Kevin Pietersen at the close. “I think Bangladesh showed a lot of fight and courage this morning, and we have definitely got a fight on our hands. But I think we are still looking to win this Test match. We bat down to No. 10, and if we bat all day tomorrow – which we should do on that [wicket] – we can get ourselves into a good position, and still play to win every game on this trip.”Nevertheless, the contrast between the approaches of the two teams remains stark. For all that Bangladesh are growing in confidence in their own conditions, England are not so unfamiliar with the subcontinent that they can disguise the witlessness of their day’s work, particularly in the first session, in which 89 invaluable runs were segued onto their overnight score of 330 for 8 with barely a hint of a tactical rethink.”They initially tried to attack me, but I was just waiting to hit the loose balls,” said Shafiul, a man in his third month of international cricket, and with a previous top score of 13. “They [the England fielders] were telling me to hit sixes. But Naeem [Islam] was discouraging me from taking the aerial route, because if I hit in the air on this kind of wicket, that’s a problem.”It was the sort of problem, in fact, that Cook himself encountered when his new favourite shot, the slog-sweep, resulted in a hole-out to midwicket. But by then, the captain’s real crime had already been committed, after he opted – bizarrely – to operate with a split field including three men on the leg-side, not enough men in the slips, and no-one at third man, where nine precious boundaries were leaked to the Bangladesh cause.”You put a third man in place when a player is guiding the ball down there,” said Pietersen. “But at the end of the day, we had two slips and a fine gully, and then one slip and two gullies, and the ball still kept going in between them. In hindsight you can say maybe we should have shifted a fielder, but they were driving the balls through the covers and midwicket as well. Sometimes you have to say well played.”Or poorly bowled, maybe? Though Pietersen protested that the wicket was “a road”, on which a well-set tailender could camp on the front foot with no fear of the short ball, it was still left to the rookie Shafiul to spell out the second lesson of subcontinental bowling. Having given his side a rare glimpse of the ascendancy with the bat, he set about following his team orders to the letter, bowling six overs for 13, at an economy-rate than none of England’s seamers, bar the diligent Tim Bresnan, came close to matching.”We were set a target to bowl dot-ball and maiden overs, without bothering about taking wickets, and we tried accordingly,” said Shafiul. “We are now in a very good position, and [England] are a bit down. They would have been even more down with two more wickets – that would have been really good for us. But we fulfilled our target. It’s now very possible for us to take the lead, but our bowlers have to continue to do well.””They bowled two left-arm spinners, we had offspinners bowling into the right-handers and we bowled a lot of seam as well, and they were definitely easier to face than Shakib, who bowls wicket-to-wicket with pretty straight fields,” explained Pietersen, without quite convincing anyone with his reasoning. “It’s one of those wickets where you have to grind it out, when you’ve got two accurate spinners bowling at you.”And that, presumably, will be England’s plan on day three, although the irony of their predicament won’t be lost on the management, who rightly decided to reinforce their bowling after labouring to that five-day win in the first Test at Chittagong, but now find themselves that little bit lighter in genuine batting options. With Trott doing his best impression of Chris Tavare at the top, they’ve been light on get-up-and-go as well.”The wicket was flat in terms of trying to get a batsman out,” said Pietersen. “We’ve struggled to score runs, but none of the batsmen have ever really looked like getting out, because if you don’t want to get out, then a batsman can bat all day. Every session has been quite hard, but we’ve just got to make sure that when one team breaks, it’s not us who breaks. If we keep putting on the pressure, we could be 500 for 3, or 500 for 5 at the end of play tomorrow. Then it’s a different ballgame.”

Davies says the German international might hot have physical attributes to thrive in MLS, makes Olivier Giroud comparison

Davies questioned Muller's mobilityMeola said he should be a No. 10 for VancouverHow will playing style mesh with Whitecaps?Getty Images SportWHAT HAPPENED

While Bayern Munich legend Thomas Muller is reportedly close to making a move to the Vancouver Whitecaps, former USMNT striker Charlie Davies questioned whether the German international still has the necessary physical attributes to thrive in MLS – comparing his situation to Olivier Giroud's challenges.

“We all know how good Thomas Muller is when you're talking about his movement in the box, finishing,” Davies said on CBS Sports Golazo America. “When you talk about creating opportunities in the final-third, just high IQ. But he's later on in his career, he doesn't have the legs that he used to have. And if you're talking about transition game, similar to what we saw with Olivier Giroud at LAFC – if it's not a good fit, it's not a good fit. Is the city a great fit for for him? Absolutely…

"But in terms of, how does he fit within that team? If you told me as a 9? Well yeah he would fit, absolutely. But Brian White's there, so what do you do with Brian White? Is he playing the 10, you know? OK, he could play the 10. More work will need to be done but he's a top player."

AdvertisementWHAT TONY MEOLA SAID

Former USMNT star Tony Meola insisted Muller would need to play as a No. 10 positioned close to White in Vancouver's 4-2-3-1 system. He emphasized that head coach Jesper Sorensen likely already has a specific tactical plan for integrating Muller.

“When they play that 4-2-3-1, he's got a place to 10, right?” Meola said. “He's got to play as close to Brian White as possible. I guess the issue or the change for him is that they like to press the ball when it turns over, right? They like to get after the ball and does he want to do that for 90 minutes? if you've ever had a chance to talk to, yes, for Sorensen… the guy's picture is really clear.

"So I'm guessing that they have a real idea. This isn't like someone where the league says, ‘Hey, we got this superstar and we're gonna get them to your team and he's going to come and you just fit him in how you want.'"

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Muller left Bayern Munich after spending his entire playing career with the Bavarian giants. He is the club’s all-time appearance holder with 503, netting 250 goals and 231 assists across all competitions.

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Getty Images SportWHAT’S NEXT?

Vancouver Whitecaps will need to finalize rights negotiations with FC Cincinnati. Reports have indicated that the German and Vancouver have reached an agreement on personal terms.

Chelsea, Arsenal, the Orlando Pride and the London City Lionesses have all broken the world record in 2025 alone, as spending in the women's game grows

As women's football continues to grow worldwide, the sport's transfer record does too. In fact, in 2025 alone, the world-record fee has been broken no fewer than four times. It means that the money Chelsea parted with back in the summer of 2020 to sign Pernille Harder for the greatest fee in the history of the women's game is now some way down the list of the most expensive transfers, not even inside the top 25.

Keira Walsh took Harder's place and moved to the top of that list in the summer of 2022, but her transfer from Manchester City to Barcelona is not even in the top 10 anymore, with the England midfielder herself actually part of a more expensive deal in January 2025, when she moved back to England to join Chelsea.

So, what are the most lucrative transfers in the history of women's football? GOAL breaks down the most expensive deals the sport has seen to date…

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  15Kika Nazareth (Benfica to Barcelona)

  Another huge signing Barcelona made in the summer of 2024, Kika had become arguably the best player in Portugal before moving to Catalunya. Debuting for Benfica at 16 years old, she was 21 when Barca came in and paid just under €500,000 (£424,000/$538,000) to sign her. The young forward is continuing her exciting development nicely with the reigning European champions.

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  14Mayra Ramirez (Levante to Chelsea)

  When Chelsea got the news that star striker Sam Kerr had suffered a cruel ACL injury in the first few days of 2024, they made a statement by making a big move in the January transfer window that would help make up for her absence. For a fee of €450,000 (£384,000/$486,000), the Blues signed Mayra Ramirez from Levante, after her impressive return of 22 goals in 38 games for the Spanish side.

  Ramirez's arrival became all the more important when Mia Fishel, signed as a back-up to Kerr, went down with the same injury shortly after the transfer window closed. Indeed, on the final day of the WSL's 2023-24 season, it was the January arrival who put in a title-winning performance as Chelsea beat Man Utd to retain their league title.

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  13Priscila (Internacional to Club America)

  The only transfer on this list which includes a non-American or European club as the buyer, Priscila completed a move from Brazilian club Internacional to Mexican side Club America in 2024 for a fee of $497,000 (£378,000). While the transfer fee converts to a smaller one than Ramirez's in some currencies, it was ranked as a more expensive move than the Chelsea striker's in FIFA's global transfer report for 2024.

  Priscila had only just celebrated her 20th birthday when the transfer went through but she is handling the pressure that comes with such a high-profile move well and scoring prolifically for America.

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  12Lily Yohannes (Ajax to Lyon)

  It was no surprise when Lily Yohannes completed a transfer that landed her a spot on this list. The teenage midfielder exploded onto the Champions League scene in the 2023-24 season, starring for Ajax as they reached an historic quarter-final, and that helped put her back on the United States' radar, after she had seen limited action in the youth national teams. Indeed, a senior debut wasn't too far away, with the question suddenly when, rather than if, she would get a big move away from Ajax.

  That came in the summer of 2025 when, despite heavy links to Chelsea, Yohannes joined eight-time European champions Lyon in a deal worth €450,000 (£390,000 / $525,000). She was only 18 years old when the deal went through.