
Clubs spend $48.5bn in players’ transfers in 10yrs, says FIFA report, as Chelsea, Man City top biggest spenders

With barely 48 hours left for European clubs to conclude player transfers for this window, world football governing body, FIFA has published a report on international transfers for men during the 2011-2020 period, representing the most comprehensive review of transfers across the globe ever produced.

According to the report released Monday, a whopping $48.5bn was spent on transfer fees over the past decade, involving 200 FIFA member associations in international transfers.

The report noted that Top 30 clubs in terms of transfer fee spend are European-based.

The FIFA report confirms that transfer market activity increased steadily over the past decade. From 11,890 transfers conducted in 2011 to a peak of 18,079 in 2019, a total of 133,225 international transfers and loans of professional players took place, while USD 48.5 billion was spent on transfer fees during the period.
According to the FIFA report, 200 member-associations were involved over the ten-year period.
The transfers involved 66,789 players and 8,264 clubs across 200 FIFA member associations, thus underlining football’s role in the global economy.
The report said Brazilian nationals moving to foreign clubs topped the list with 15,128 transfers, followed by Argentinian (7,444), British (5,523), French (5,027) and Colombian footballers (4,287).
During the last decade, the number of clubs conducting international transfers grew by more than 30%, from 3,167 in 2011 to a peak of 4,139 in 2019.
The list of top 30 clubs in terms of transfer fee spend was made up solely of European clubs: England (12 clubs), Spain and Italy (five each), Germany (three), France and Portugal (two each), and Russia (one).
Those 30 clubs alone spent a total of USD 22.8 billion on transfer fees, representing 47 per cent of the global total over the decade.
As identified by FIFA in its ongoing reform of the transfer system, the report also confirms a sharp decline in solidarity contributions, with the 2020 amount ($38.5 million) mirroring that of 2011 ($ 38.0 million).
According to the report, this trend reinforces the need for the world football governing body’s Clearing House, which FIFA expects to help enforce training compensation and solidarity payments up to an amount of approximately USD 300 million per year.
“The decline in training compensation payments is in stark contrast to the amount of commissions paid to agents, which increased from USD 131.1 million in 2011 to USD 640.5 million in 2019. A total of $3.5 billion was paid for agents’ commissions in international transfers over the course of the decade,” it said.
Manchester City have unsurprisingly been the biggest spenders in the last ten years, and there’s no doubt that the big money paid for the likes of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling has contributed a huge amount to their recent success.
Chelsea are not far behind and have long been one of the most competitive names in the market ever since wealthy Russian owner Roman Abramovich took over in 2003.

These two continue to flaunt their wealth by signing world class names like Jack Grealish and Romelu Lukaku this summer, and, having contested last season’s Champions League final, they’re sure to be among the main teams challenging for major honours this term as well.
However, surprisingly too, Arsenal have also spent more than Juventus, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich and Monaco, who have all won league titles in the last decade.