Millions of transactions on the transfer market
A FIFA report shows the development of the international transfer market in recent years. An overview of the incredible and curious numbers.
The crazy numbers
133,225 players left their club between 2011 and 2020 and moved to another country. A total of 8,264 clubs were involved in transfers and turned over 41 billion euros.
Manchester City has lived at its greatest for the past ten years. The FIFA report leaves open how much money the English champions have actually spent. The Sheikh Club signed 130 players from abroad during this period, around 60 percent of which were taken into the club's coffers. Behind Manchester City are Chelsea and FC Barcelona.
There are also twelve clubs from England in the top 30. English clubs have invested a total of 10.5 billion euros in international transfers over the past ten years. The largest number of transfers in the top 30 were made by Benfica Lisbon – the Portuguese club bought a total of 167 players between 2011 and 2020.
A look at the development of the transfer volume may come as a bit of a surprise. In all major European leagues, less money was spent in 2020 than in the previous year. In Spain, this value even more than halved last year. The global corona pandemic is also likely to have had an impact on the decline.
Between 2011 and 2016, the proportion of player agents involved in transfers almost doubled. An advisor has a hand in almost every tenth international transfer today. Their influence becomes even clearer when looking at the finances: In 2011, player agents worldwide received investments amounting to around 96 million euros. In 2019 it was more than five times as many with 543 million! Over the past ten years, a total of 3 billion euros has flowed into the wallets of player advisors. In its report, FIFA writes of a “dramatic increase”.
The Portuguese from Benfica Lisbon have not only signed the most players (167) in the last ten years, they have also given up the most players. There was money for almost half of the 311 players submitted. In the ranking of the most transfer income, city rivals Sporting Lisbon and FC Barcelona follow in second and third place.
Around two thirds of the world's clubs have had a positive transfer record over the past ten years. Clubs from South America, where 90 percent were in the black, did the best. At the other end of the list are clubs from the Asian Football Association. Just under 35 percent received at least as much money from transfers as was spent on new players.
The largest savings fox club is called Albirex Niigata. The Singapore club has signed 160 players in the last ten years – without spending a euro on transfer costs. In Cyprus, too, they don't think much of transfer fees: Cypriot clubs signed a total of 975 players without a contract in the same period.
