Summer transfer window breaks records, says Fifa in new ‘snapshot’ report
Football continues to be big business, with records broken across the world as clubs splash the cash - here are the key findings from FIFA’s report.
The International Transfer Snapshot shows fans how much money has been spent on transfers across global professional football in this mid-year transfer window, including insights into contract types and player ages - and it shows that England is leading the way in many metrics.
Spending on transfer fees this window was the second highest ever in men’s professional football with a whopping $6.46bn spent*, and English clubs made up a huge proportion of this with over $1.6bn*. The 11,000 men’s incoming transfers completed or pending worldwide represented a new record and 526 of these were in England - the highest in the world. English transfer fees spent were also far higher than the global average, with the average fee in England being over $8m (lower than the past four years) compared to just under $3m on a global scale.
The most expensive player of the summer was Julián Alvarez, who left Manchester City for Atlético Madrid in a deal worth up to £82m - a staggering profit on the £14m which City originally paid for him two years ago. Tottenham Hotspur take this year’s mantle for biggest purchase by an English club after Dominic Solanke joined from Bournemouth for a £55m fee, plus £10m in add-ons.
Records were smashed in women’s football too, with 1,125 transfers completed or pending - up from 853 last year. The share of transfers that included a fee has risen from 7.9 per cent to nine per cent.
Women’s transfer spending across the world more than doubled, rising from $3.02m to $6.8m* (£2.3m to £5.3m) - again, English clubs were the biggest spenders, splashing $2.33m* (£1.78m) with more than a week remaining until the Women’s Super League transfer window shuts on September 13.
One of the headline buys was Olivia Smith’s arrival at Liverpool in June, with the club spending £210,000 to bring her to Merseyside - though that’s still some way short of the $860,000 (£656,000) that American side Bay FC paid for Racheal Kundananji in February.
*These figures include data from both pending and completed transfers.