Rapidly lost records in football, from transfer fees to eye-opening wins | The Knowledge

"Marc Guiu became Chelsea's youngest-ever Champions League goalscorer against Ajax, only to have the record snatched away from him by Estevao 30 minutes later. What other examples of rapidly lost records are there in the world of football? What's the record for the shortest-held record? asks Matt Prior. Given the predilection of those involved in football to flaunt their wad, transfer records are fertile ground for this kind of question."

"The first example that comes to mind is in the summer of 1995, when the British transfer record was broken twice. First Arsenal paid 7.5m for Inter's Dennis Bergkamp; 15 days later, Liverpool bought Stan Collymore from Nottingham Forest for 8.5m. Stan Collymore joins Liverpool for 8.5m in 1995. Photograph: PA It's not often that Bergkamp is bracketed alongside David Mills and Steve Daley, but they also held the transfer record for a short time."

"Both were in 1979, with the progression of the record listed below. Wolves, who sold Daley to Manchester City, used that money to break the record again three days later by signing Andy Gray from Aston Villa. 515,000 David Mills (Middlesbrough to West Brom, January) 1m Trevor Francis (Birmingham to Nottm Forest, February) 1.45m Steve Daley (Wolves to Man City, September) 1.5m Andy Gray (Aston Villa to Wolves, September)"

"The big one, the men's world transfer record, has also been broken multiple times in a short period. In the space of around a month in the summer of 1992, Jean-Pierre Papin (Marseille to Milan, 10m), Gianluca Vialli (Sampdoria to Juventus, 12m) and Gianluigi Lentini (Torino to Milan, 13m) all upgraded the record previously held by Roberto Baggio. Four years later, Barcelona paid PSV Eindhoven 13.2m to sign Ronaldo. Less than three weeks later, Alan Shearer famously went from Blackburn to Newcastle for 15m."

Football records can be fleeting, with on-field and transfer milestones overturned within minutes, days or weeks. Chelsea's Marc Guiu became the club's youngest Champions League goalscorer, only to lose that status 30 minutes later to Estevao. Transfer-fee records have been especially volatile: in summer 1995 Arsenal paid 7.5m for Dennis Bergkamp and 15 days later Liverpool paid 8.5m for Stan Collymore. Earlier in 1979 David Mills, Trevor Francis, Steve Daley and Andy Gray successively held the British record within months. The men's world transfer record was raised several times in a short span in 1992 and again in the mid-1990s. The women's world transfer record also shifted rapidly this year, with Olivia Smith's fee briefly becoming a world record.

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