Premier League leads the way as global transfer spending record broken
Spending in the Premier League has reached an all-time record and has dwarfed that of La-Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and the Bundesliga combined
The global transfer spending record has been broken this summer, according to figures from Transfermarkt.
Clubs worldwide have spent a combined £6.56 billion on 1,617 players so far, surpassing the previous high for a single window of £6.51 billion set in 2019.
Spending in the Premier League alone has reached record highs. Back in 2017 the record stood at £1.4 billion, before rising to £1.9 billion in 2022.
But the summer of 2023 has smashed both those records with £2.59 billion having been spent before the transfer deadline has even closed.
Highest spending leagues
The Premier League is comfortably the highest-spending division in 2023-24, with almost £2.59 billion having been invested in more than 270 players.
The £2 billion mark was reached for the first time in advance of Friday’s deadline as Chelsea and Arsenal both made £100million midfield signings, with deadline-day moves such as Manchester City’s £53 million capture of Wolves’ Matheus Nunes driving the total higher still.
The Saudi Pro League is second on the list with a combined total of £727 million, ahead of Italy’s Serie A (£683 million), Germany’s Bundesliga (£598 million), France’s Ligue 1 (£597 million) and Spain’s LaLiga (£342 million).
The English top flight has moved further clear of rival leagues compared to 2019, with Premier League spending almost doubling and now accounting for 32 per cent of the global total, up from 20 per cent four years ago.
In contrast, the remaining four of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues have all spent less than they did in 2019, albeit with a few hours of the window still to go.
Those declines have been offset by a huge rise in Saudi Pro League spending, from less than 1 per cent of the total in 2019 to more than 11 per cent in 2023.
The increase in Saudi Arabia’s market share has come at the expense of LaLiga clubs in particular, whose spending is worth just five per cent of the worldwide total this summer – compared to 18 per cent four years ago.
Highest spending clubs
Chelsea have spent over £400 million on new players this summer, the most of any club worldwide according to Transfermarkt.
The Blues are top of the spending charts for the third consecutive window under Todd Boehly’s ownership, with their total transfer outlay closing in on £1 billion since last summer’s takeover.
Unlike previous windows, however, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal (£304 million) are the second-highest spending club, ahead of Arsenal (£202 million), PSG (£180 million), Tottenham (£166 million) and Manchester United (£165 million).
The remaining three clubs owned by the gulf state’s Public Investment Fund – Al-Ahli (£157m), Al-Nassr (£142m) and Al-Ittihad (£65m) – also feature in the top 25 highest spenders so far this season.
Most expensive transfers
Despite the rise in Saudi Pro League spending, all three nine-figure transfers this summer have involved Premier League clubs.
Moises Caicedo, Harry Kane and Declan Rice all moved for an initial £100 million, with Brighton, Tottenham and West Ham extracting club-record fees for their prized assets.
Caicedo and Rice stayed in the English top flight by moving to Chelsea and Arsenal respectively, while Kane joined 11-time reigning Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich in search of silverware.
At an initial £88.5 million, Jude Bellingham’s switch from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid is fourth on the list, while Manchester City’s Josko Gvardiol and Al-Hilal’s Neymar are joint-fifth having joined for £77.6 million from RB Leipzig and PSG respectively.
The fees and wages on offer in Saudi Arabia are eye-watering, with Liverpool rejecting a £150 million deadline-day bid from Al-Ittihad for attacking talisman Mohamed Salah.
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