It's official: Lucas Herrington is a Premier League player, leaving MLS side the Colorado Rapids for newly promoted Hull City on a five-year deal. And with the deal worth a reported £12.6 million (with an additional £4.4 million in add-ons), he's also now the most expensive teenager in Australian football history, as well as the second-most valuable Australian player of any age of all time.
And while judging a player's talent by the market fee they can command is a fraught endeavor, especially in the increasingly inflated modern era, looking at some of the names he slots alongside in the all-time list of Australian transfer fees suggests the 18-year-old is destined to be pretty good.
But who are those names? Rather than use aggregation services, ESPN has sought, where possible, to cite figures from contemporary and independent sources to determine the top 10 most expensive men's Australian transfers of all-time, a list featuring some of its biggest and most notable names.
With fees paid either in Sterling or Euros, those paid in the latter, weaker currency were benchmarked against the former to determine where they would fall in this list. Additionally, and for clarity, ESPN has opted not to account for inflation, fluctuations in exchange rates, or market changes and convert the figures into modern sums -- the sum paid was the sum paid. This means that while Harry Kewell's, Mark Viduka's, or Mark Bresciano's moves would have shot to the top of this list if conducted in today's market, they sit lower on these rankings.
1. Harry Souttar (2023)
Stoke City to Leicester City
£15 million (£5 million in add-ons)
After a dominant FIFA World Cup in 2022, Souttar sealed a move to then-Premier League outfit Leicester the following month, joining on a reported record-setting deal. Injury and banishment by then-Foxes boss Enzo Marasca have restricted Souttar to just 18 appearances with the Foxes since the 2023 move, and saw him at one stage go out on loan to Sheffield United, where he ruptured his Achilles and was forced into a race against time to be fit for the 2026 World Cup. But with the former champions of England now relegated to League One, a move away from the King Power looks imminent for the Socceroos skipper.
2. Lucas Herrington (2026)
Colorado Rapids to Hull City
£12.6 million (£4.4 million in add-ons)
With his move now official, Herrington has become the Socceroos' second-most expensive footballer of all-time, joining on a fee of approximately £12.6 million, with a further £4.4 million in add-ons. It continues a remarkable rise for the 18-year-old, who only made his professional debut less than two years ago and now looks set -- as their new record signing -- to be a key part of the Tigers' battle to avoid relegation from the English top flight. If nothing else, Herrington will be kept busy against some of the best attacking talent in the world.
3. Aaron Mooy (2017)
Manchester City to Huddersfield Town
£8 million (£2 million in add-ons)
After helping Huddersfield end a 45-year absence from the Premier League, driving them to promotion from the Championship with four goals and seven assists across 42 starts while on loan from Man City, the Terriers made Mooy's presence at the Kirklees Stadium permanent back in 2017 when they forked out a reported club-record fee for "the Pasty Pirlo." The high-water mark for players coming back to the A-League Men to re-establish their value before trying overseas once more -- Mooy had nondescript stints with Bolton Wanderers and St Mirren before returning home to play for the Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne City -- the midfielder would go on to start every game for Australia at the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.
4. Harry Kewell (2003)
Leeds United to Liverpool
£7 million
Kewell's 2003 move to Liverpool is a bit complicated, as reports from the time note the then cash-strapped Yorkshire club received only £3 million of the deal, so you could also see this one listed for that amount in some places. Undoubtedly, Kewell was worth a lot more at that point too, having established himself as one of the world's -- not just Australia's -- best attacking talents throughout his time at Elland Road. Some outlets rated Kewell being worth close to £40 million in 2000, when he was reportedly fielding interest from the likes of Barcelona, Manchester United, AC Milan, and Chelsea. Kewell's eventual move to Anfield would have totaled much more had a bidding war eventuated, but the Socceroos star had his heart set on Liverpool so Leeds agreed a small sum rather than lose Kewell as a free agent when his contract expired.
5. Cristian Volpato (2023)
AS Roma to Sassuolo
€7.5 million
Now a fully fledged Australia international, Volpato slots into these rankings off the back of his 2023 move from Roma to Sassuolo, who had been monitoring his progress in the Italian capital even before he made his senior debut under José Mourinho. Stuck behind club legend Domenico Berardi, Volpato hasn't been an out-and-out starter for I Neroverdi, but did show enough to be the subject of reported interest from Fiorentina earlier this year. His reported run-in with the law last month, however, means that his status in Tony Popovic's national team -- and any potential future moves -- are now perhaps under a cloud.
6. Mark Bresciano (2002)
Empoli to Parma
€7 million
Bresciano -- then with a head of curly hair! -- became the most expensive Australian player of all-time when he made the move to Parma in 2002. Injuries hampered him during his first season in Emilia-Romagna, but he still logged minutes alongside the likes of Adrian Mutu, Junior, Hidetoshi Nakata and Adriano and appeared in three straight UEFA Cup campaigns as he established himself as a rare Australian mainstay in the Italian top-flight, at a time when Serie A had yet to be crushed by Premier League money and stood as arguably the best league in the world.
7. Mathew Ryan (2015)
Club Brugge to Valencia
€7 million
After Diego Alves suffered a serious knee injury at the end of the 2014-15 season, Valencia set their sights on the Socceroos No. 1 the following summer and paid what was reported to be the highest fee for an Australian keeper to lure him from Belgium (it netted his former A-League Men club the Central Coast Mariners a handy sell-on fee, too). Ryan would subsequently start the first two games of the LaLiga season, but a meniscus injury knocked him out of the XI, with Jaume Doménech starting in his absence, and Alves would end the season as a starter. After making just two LaLiga appearances at the start of the following campaign, he would seal a loan move back to Belgium with Racing Genk in January, re-establishing his value as he helped Blauw-Wit push for Europe.
8. Mark Viduka (2000)
Celtic to Leeds United
£6 million
Arguably the most dominant player that Australia has produced (just ask Liverpool fans), Viduka sealed a move from Scottish giants Celtic to Leeds, then at the height of their ambitious splashing of cash, for a reported £6m -- the Glasgow club doubling the money they paid for him in late 1998 -- to replace Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink up front ahead of their tilt at the UEFA Champions League. You could see why Viduka was so highly rated at the time, too, banging in 25 goals across 28 league appearances at Parkhead the season prior, at a time when Celtic and Scottish football were much stronger players in the European game.
9. Mathew Ryan (2017)
Valencia to Brighton & Hove Albion
£5.4 million
Both Alves and Ryan left Valencia in the summer of 2017, with Alves returning to Brazil to join Flamengo and Ryan landing in the Premier League for a Brighton club-record fee after incumbent Seagulls No. 1 David Stockdale left on a free transfer. In goal for their first top-flight win in 34 years, Ryan continued to maintain a stranglehold on the Socceroos' No. 1 role as he went on to serve as Brighton's first-choice keeper for the following three seasons in the Premier League, before leaving on loan to Arsenal after Graham Potter opted to roll with Robert Sánchez for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.
10. Mark Viduka (2004)
Leeds United to Middlesbrough
£4.5 million
Signed as part of Boro's plans to push for Champions League football -- 2004 really was a different world -- Viduka reportedly left financially-stricken and just-relegated Leeds to sign up to a strike force featuring the man he replaced at Leeds in Hasselbaink, as well as Joseph-Désiré Job. As Kewell did in his move to Liverpool, Viduka received a portion of the fee himself, reported at £1 million, as compensation for lost income from wage deferrals at Elland Road. He would go on to score 42 goals across 101 appearances for Boro, playing alongside Socceroos teammate Mark Schwarzer.