The captain of the England team, Harry Kane, was transferred on Saturday August 12 by his club Tottenham to Bayern Munich for a sum estimated by the German press at more than 100 million euros, together with a bonus of 10 million euros. Even if the exact amount is not yet known, this transfer would constitute a record for the German club. However, he is not so out of the ordinary on the scale of European football. On June 14, 19-year-old English footballer Jude Bellingham announced that he would leave his club Borussia Dortmund to join Real Madrid, for 103 million euros.
Bellingham’s transfer is only the 13th highest transaction, just ahead of Welshman Gareth Bale, who in 2013 was the first player transferred for more than 100 million euros – already to Real Madrid. Three years later, Manchester United paid 105 million euros for Frenchman Paul Pogba. Since then, transfers of such an amount have been concluded every year, with the exception of 2020 and 2022.
However, not all football clubs have the means to invest such sums to recruit a player. Globally, only seven of them share the fourteen most expensive transfers in history.
Unsurprisingly, these are the most successful clubs in Europe: Real Madrid, holder of fourteen Champions League trophies, or FC Barcelona and its five titles. Others like Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus Turin have also invested with the aim of shining at European level. Among the most expensive transfers, PSG is champion: by paying 222 million euros in 2017 to afford the Brazilian Neymar, it doubled the amount of the previous record, which still remains unmatched.
An overall increase in club finances
The inflation of transfers can be explained by the arrival of wealthy investors such as Qatar Sport Investments, owner of PSG since 2011. The income generated by the European championships has also increased significantly in recent years. This allows a few clubs to invest more and more, and to fuel an overall price increase.
The English championship particularly benefits from this increase. At the end of the 2021-2022 season, Norwich City FC, bottom of the English championship, received 100.6 million pounds of television rights. This is more than double the amount received by PSG, Ligue 1 champions the same year. Possessing the most attractive and watched championship, England concentrates in fact the biggest transfers.
For comparison, the Spanish league, second most represented among the hundred largest transfers in history, concerns “only” 25% of the most expensive transactions.
In the extra-European championships, only China has already concluded transfers among the hundred most expensive. Recently, Saudi Arabia has distinguished itself by attracting stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. But the kingdom has never registered a huge transfer: these two players at the end of the contract changed clubs for free. It is their salaries that are breaking records. According to L’Equipe, Cristiano Ronaldo has been offered a 400 million euro contract over two and a half years to join the Al-Nassr club, and promote the World Cup in Saudi Arabia in 2030. Nothing is wrong. will prevent Saudi clubs from deploying their resources in the transfer market in the coming years.
