It was. Zidane and Inzaghi for +110m eur total. But what I'm saying is that lately the Italians will sell players for 70-80m eur (see Milan last year) and splash 20 or 30 million of it. Back then we sold players for 110m, we splashed all the money and added 40-50m eur of our own. Every summer for 4-5 years there were at least three or four players bought by a serie A team for +30m euro. In the last 10 years, there wasn't a single +30m eur buy in Italy.
To picture it, these were the top transfer fees paid by Italian teams from 1999-2002, and then the highest transfer fees in the last 10 years.
1999-2002
1. Crespo (to Lazio) €55m
2. Buffon (to Juventus) €49m
3. Mendieta (to Lazio) €48m
4. Vieri (to Inter) €45m
5. Rui Costa (to Milan) €42m
6. Nedved (to Juventus) €41m
7. Inzaghi (to Milan) €37m
8. Crespo (to Inter) €36m
9. Thuram (to Juventus) €35m
10. Batistuta (to Roma) €32,5m
11. Nesta (to Milan) €30,5m
12. Veron (to Lazio) €30m
13. Cassano (to Roma) €28,5m
14. Amoroso (to Parma) €28m
2003-2013
1. Gilardino (to Milan) €25m
2. Felipe Melo (to Juventus) €25m
3. Milito (to Inter) €25m (15m cash+players)
4. Quaresma (to Inter) €25m (16,8m cash+players)
5. Ibrahimovic (to Inter) €24,8m
6. Emerson (to Juventus) €24,5m (12m cash+players)
7. Diego (to Juventus) €24,5m
8. Ronaldinho (to Milan) €24,1m
9. Ibrahimovic (to Milan) €24m
10. Amauri (to Juventus) €22,8m (12,8m cash+players)
One can easily spot that there is much less money in serie A in the last decade.
