With average transfer fees escalating and €100 million-plus deals increasingly common, the financial spotlight is shining brightly on soccer teams around the world. But which clubs have done well and which have failed? Helpfully, the CIES Football Observatory have conducted a study that can explain it all.
CIES’ report looked at the 100 most active clubs across the last decade in terms of net transfer spending (incomings minus outgoings). From 2014 onwards, Manchester United have emerged as the club with the single biggest negative balance, but they are not alone from the Premier League as there are plenty of others who have failed to “break even” too.
While spending in Europe (particularly in England) has seen records fall on an almost-yearly basis, there are some successes to be found as well, with clubs from Portugal and France making great use of the transfer market to boost their profits.
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Note: The CIES figures include full, fixed transfer fees plus any further add-ons (whether or not they have been paid) as well as any fees paid as part of loan deals. Furthermore, fees included as an “obligation to sign permanently” clause in said loan deals are also factored in.
Further note: The transfer figures represent estimates that are as close as possible to reality. They are based on official data published by FIFA TMS for international transfers and the CIES Football Observatory’s own research. The sums of paid transfers for which no figures have been published have been extrapolated using a property statistical model estimating the value of professional football players.
So, here’s a breakdown of the best and worst performers.
1. Manchester United are clearly the worst
During the past decade, Manchester United have amassed the largest negative transfer spend of any top club in world football with an ominous balance of -€1.4 billion. This reflects the club’s propensity to sign players in lavish marquee deals without necessarily being able to move them on for profit.
For example, all 10 of the biggest signings in United’s history have arrived since 2014 and of the three players to have since departed Old Trafford — Paul Pogba (€105m), Romelu Lukaku (€84m) and Ángel Di María (€75m) — none recouped anything beyond a fraction of their original transfer fees.
