FIFA publish transfer report with Man Utd topping table as Premier League dominates spend

English football clubs spent a staggering £1.78BILLION on transfers in 2022 – and that accounted for a THIRD of the world’s total outlay in the two windows.

FIFA have published their annual Global Transfer Report and, once again, it is the English clubs – led by the Premier League’s big spenders – who dominate. Manchester United top the pile with Liverpool coming in third and Newcastle United fifth.

For the first time, the combined English outlay exceeded the $2billion mark, reaching a record high of just under $2.2billion (£1.78billion). With the current January shaping up to be a record-breaker, it is almost certain that the $2.2billion mark will be easily passed in 2023.

The English contribution to the transfer action helped the global sales to exceed £5.25 billion, an increase of 33.5percent compared to 2021 but still below the all-time high of 2019.

In total, there were over 20,000 international transfers in men’s professional football in 2022. French clubs were the biggest beneficiaries of a spending splurge led by the Premier League, raking in almost £600million from transfer fees.

For the first time, Portugal topped the chart for the most incoming transfers, with 901 players being signed in 2022. Brazil released the highest number of players, with 998 being sold by their clubs.

Of the entire amount spent by clubs across the world, 12.5 percent was accounted for by the top ten player transfer fees. Six of the top ten fees were commanded by players coming into the Premier League.

Not strictly in financial order, they were Darwin Nunez from Benfica to Liverpool, Antony from Ajax to Manchester United, Casemiro from Real Madrid to Manchester United, Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City, Alexander Isak from Real Sociedad to Newcastle United and Luis Diaz from Porto to Liverpool.

Of the 20 highest-spending clubs in the world in 2022, 11 were from the Premier League, although table-topping Arsenal are conspicuous by their absence from that list.

In the women’s game, there was a 19.3 percent increase in transfers compared to 2021, with 1555 being made and 500 clubs doing business compared to 410 in the previous year.