Despite a drop in spending, England remains the world’s biggest spender in the transfer market. Worldwide, transfer fees have fallen compared to last summer’s transfer window.
It’s a dominance that comes as no surprise. With the summer transfer window just over, England have reinforced their dominance of the men’s football transfer market this summer, remaining by far the biggest spender while snatching the top spot in revenue from Germany.
According to a report published Tuesday by FIFA, the richest championship in the world saw its clubs pay out $1.69 billion (1.52 billion euros) between June 1 and September 1, for 526 international recruitments over this period. This is a little less than in the summer of 2023 ($1.98 billion), but twice as much as Italy ($825 million), ahead of France ($697 million), Spain ($599 million) and Germany ($572 million).
Saudi Arabia, after having propelled itself last year to second place among the biggest spenders, has fallen behind the European “Big 5”, with 431 million dollars spent, half as much as in the summer of 2023.
Transfer fees down worldwide
On the sellers’ side, English clubs broke the revenue record set a year ago by German teams, accumulating 1.25 billion dollars (1.13 billion euros) thanks to the international transfers of 523 players.
France ranks second ($756 million), ahead of Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Italy. The leading non-European seller, Brazil, appears in eighth place ($278 million), a sign of the economic hegemony of football on the Old Continent.
Overall, transfer fees in men’s football fell by 13% compared to last year, to 6.4 billion dollars (5.8 billion euros), but with a new record for the number of operations, namely 11,000 movements.
The progression is spectacular for women’s football, although the sums involved are much lower: the number of international transfers has jumped by 31% compared to last summer (1,125), for an amount more than doubled, to 6.8 million dollars (6.15 million euros).
