Rating the Premier League's 10 most expensive Americans

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 23 May 2023 09:09 CDT
• 5 min read

Arsenal are reportedly ready to spend around €50 million on Juventus' USA international midfielder Weston McKennie. How do the big-money Americans in the Premier League rank?

McKennie's friend and former Revierderby rival Christian Pulisic is the most expensive American to move to the Premier League, following his €64m transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea in 2019. But is he the best?

FootballTransfers takes a closer look at the Premier League's 10 most expensive Americans, and how they fared…

READ: Arsenal eye £50m midfielder after Elneny injury blow

10) Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew to Man City for €8m in 2019)

Zack Steffen joined Man City as the USMNT's first-choice goalkeeper in the summer of 2019, but he has never been able to dislodge Ederson at the Etihad. Spent the 2019/20 campaign on loan in Germany with Fortuna Dusseldorf and is currently on a similar deal with Middlesbrough in the Championship.

9) Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen to Norwich for €9.5m in 2021)

Josh Sargent made his big money move to Norwich from Werder Bremen ahead of the 2021/22 Premier League campaign. Never really got going for the Canaries last term, scoring just twice in 26 games as they were relegated, but he has 10 from 26 games in the Championship this season.

8) Chris Richards (Bayern Munich to Crystal Palace for €12m in 2020)

Chris Richards was signed by Crystal Palace as one for the future, albeit one who had already featured for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. Has played a bit-part role thus far, but Patrick Vieira was effusive in his praise after handing Richards his first Premier League start, against Manchester United, recently.

READ: The 10 most expensive American players of all time

7) Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar to Sunderland for €10m in 2013)

We go back in time a bit for the next player on our list in Jozy Altidore, who, like Sargent, had a famously poor goalscoring record in England's top flight, scoring just once in 42 games with Sunderland. His all-round game was about more than just goals, though, and he rediscovered his goalscoring touch with Toronto, remaining a mainstay of the USMNT until 2019.

6) Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg to Leeds for €33m in 2022)

Brenden Aaronson is only a year into his Premier League career having joined Leeds from Red Bull Salzburg in May 2022, his €33m fee making him the second most expensive American of all-time after Pulisic. The early signs have been promising, with Aaronson forming a fine central midfield partnership with compatriot Tyler Adams.

5) Claudio Reyna (Rangers to Sunderland for €6.7m in 2002)

Pulisic, Adams et al are part of a perceived golden generation of US talent alongside Dortmund's Gio Reyna, but it is his father Claudio who is next on this list. A talented midfielder in his day, Reyna senior joined Sunderland from Rangers back in 2002, and although he could never repeat the domestic double he won in his final season in Scotland, he went on to make more than 100 Premier League appearances with the Black Cats and then Manchester City, despite injury troubles.

4) Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig to Leeds for €17m in 2022)

Adams sometimes feels like the senior partner in that aforementioned Leeds midfield, despite only being a year Aaronson's senior, but few have managed to match the former Leipzig man at his defensive duties league-wide. Adams has averaged two blocks and four tackles per game at Elland Road, is now the USA captain, and is well on his way to becoming a star under Jesse Marsch.

3) DeAndre Yedlin (Tottenham Hotspur to Newcastle for €5.9m in 2016)

DeAndre Yedlin was arguably the USA's most accomplished player from right-back during his Premier League pomp, which began with Tottenham Hotspur in 2014 but really got going when he moved north to Newcastle two years later. Helped the Toon back into the Premier League as second tier champions in 2017, and left for Galatasaray in 2021 with 125 Magpies appearances - with three goals and 11 assists - under his belt.

2) Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea for €64m in 2019)

The most expensive American player of all-time, and arguably the most talented, Pulisic's Chelsea career has stuttered at times, but there is no escaping the fact that after arriving in England from Dortmund in 2019, he played a significant role in Chelsea being crowned European and then world champions under Thomas Tuchel in 2021. His 45 goal-involvements in 136 games for the Blues are not to be sniffed at, and Tuchel's successor Graham Potter recently dismissed suggestions than Pulisic could be about to leave the club.

1) Clint Dempsey (Fulham to Tottenham Hotspur for €7.5m in 2012)

Clint Dempsey's €7.5m move from Fulham to Tottenham Hotspur in 2012 qualifies him for this list, but it was in his five years with the Cottagers that he really made his name. The Texas native joined Fulham in a €3m move from New England Revolution in 2007, playing his first season alongside USA teammate Brian McBride. It was whilst at Fulham that he became the first American to ever score a hat-trick in the Premier League, and he left five years later with 50 top-flight strikes for the club, which remains a record.