Transfer: £5.9b Spends World Wide In Four Months-FIFA Report; England Top Chart+ Full List

By Daniel Ojukwu

The world football governing body, FIFA has revealed that a whooping £5.9billion was spent on transfer fees on players worldwide between June and September  this summer.

The governing body latest is published in its International Transfer Snapshot report on Friday,  after collating all transfer transactions in one of the most busiest summer transfer window for years.

FIFA’s Chief Legal and Compliance Officer Emilio Garcia Silvero revealed on Friday, saying ‘England topped the list in the 2023 mid-year period when it came to spending on transfer fees (£1.6bn), the number of incoming transfers (449) and the number of outgoing transfers (514). 

‘Germany, however, were the number one in terms of receipts from transfer fees (£890m).’

According to the report, Saudi Arabia were second in the list behind England with £701m spent on transfer fees this summer, ahead of France (£689m), Germany (£611m), Italy (£570m) and Spain (£325m).

Silvero also added that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which governs Saudi Arabia and the other Middle Eastern nations, accounted for 14.0 per cent of this summer’s global transfer expenditure.

According to Silvero, the money spent on transfer fees on players fees in the mid-year window between June 1 and September 1smashes the previous worldwide record set in 2019.

The report revealed that this summer’s spending was 26.8 per cent higher than 2019, when Joao Felix to Athletico Madrid (£114m),  Antoine Griezman to Barcelona (£108m), Eden Hazard to  Real Madrid  (£89m) and Harry Maguire to Manchester United  (£80m) were the most expensive transfers of the window.

The report also shows a 47.2 per cent increase compared to the 2022 summer window, and it was the first time in history over 10,000 mid-year transfers were made worldwide.

Several high-profile players such as Christiano Ronaldo,Karim Benzema, Ngolo Kante, Jordan Henderson and Neymar left their various club sides in Europe and rushed  to the oil rich Middle East country of Saudi Arabia and signed lucrative deals with teams in Saudi Arabian Pro league.

In English Premier League, the duo of Chelsea and Arsenal broke the £100million mark to sign defensive midfielders Moises Caicedo from Brighton and Declan Rice from West Ham United respectively.

German football giants, Bayern Munich lured Harry Kane, Tottenham legend, to the club with $126 million in what became the most expensive Bundesliga transfer in history

The FIFA report also revealed that spending in the women’s game is also on the upward trend with £2.4m spent this summer, doubling the 2022 mid-year total on transfer fees.

The world football governing body also added that the number of transfers made between June and September has also jumped up for sixth successive year. In total, according to the report, a record 829 transfers were made in the women’s game this summer and 66 of those had a fee attached to the deal.

The report, also added that Europe remained the major players in the women’s game with 634 incoming and 565 outgoing transfers, just bas it also added that agent fees also increased to a new high this summer, with £558m paid to player agents between June and September. 

Source: Daily Mail football.