Which football clubs spend the most on transfers?

The research company CIES Football Observatory, which is a partner of the International Football Federation, conducted an interesting study. His goal was to find out which football clubs spent more on buying players or, on the contrary, earned more from selling them. And not over a season, which is what people most often pay attention to, but over five years. The undisputed leader among those who spent was London’s Chelsea. The club paid almost €2.6 billion for new players.

CIES Football Observatory conducted study, which aimed to find out which football clubs spent the most money on new players over the last five years. It should be noted that CIES limited the sample of clubs to only those that have made outgoing or incoming transfers worth €100 million or more over the past five years. But even with such restrictions, 169 clubs representing 24 national associations were included in the rating.

The most, let’s say, generous club in the world over the past five years has turned out to be London’s Chelsea. His spending on football players amounted to €2.572 billion. It is noteworthy that just a year ago the Londoners would not have been able to claim leadership.

But the massive purchase of football players, arranged by Chelsea owner Todd Bely, who spent more than €1 billion on transfers, allowed the Londoners to overtake Manchester City, and with a margin: the Manchester residents’ spending on new players over the five-year period amounted to €1.726 billion. In third place is PSG with an indicator of €1.404 billion.

But the CIES ranking reflects not only the gross expenditure on the purchase of players, but also the balance between the proceeds from the sale and purchase of football players, which shows which clubs make money on players and which, on the contrary, spend money. The best in this regard was Benfica, whose positive balance over the five-year period amounted to €354 million, Ajax was in second place (+€349 million), and Lille was in third (+€282 million). But the giants of world football are experiencing a net and very significant outflow of money from transfers. Chelsea again has the largest negative balance – €782 million, followed by Manchester United (-€773 million), and Arsenal closes the top three (-€622 million).

Russian clubs also came to the attention of CIES specialists. Zenit spent the most on players (69th place) – €332 million in total expenses and a negative balance of €126 million. Spartak is in 97th place – €227 million in expenses and a negative balance of €81 million. Third among Russian clubs became Dynamo, located in 124th place. The team spent €159 million on the purchase of players, receiving a negative balance of €63 million. Lokomotiv took 128th place (€154 million and a negative balance of €64 million), Krasnodar took 130th place (€151 million and minus €63 million, respectively), 132nd – CSKA (€146 million and minus €10 million).

Arnold Kabanov