Transfer market: Saudi Arabia holds off the European pace

The major leagues of world soccer brought their summer transfer market to a close, some of them registering a significant deficit in terms of the difference between spending on new additions and revenue from player sales. As usual, the Premier League were once again the biggest spenders on transactions.

According to data compiled by the website Transfermarkt, English teams spent, between July and August, around 2.600 million dollars, for the 1.8 billion dollars they earned in sales. In addition, the three teams that spent the most money to reinforce their squads are from the Premier League: Chelsea($264 million), Brighton ($256 million) and Manchester United($237 million).

In second, third, fourth and fifth place were the other four major European leagues: Serie A (Italy), with spending of approximately 1.106 million; Ligue 1 (France), with $799 million; Bundesliga (Germany), with $665 million; and LaLiga (Spain), with $614 million.

Saudi Arabia keeps pace with Europe

Two years ago, the big teams saw how, from the Middle East, a figure appeared who was going to put world soccer in check. That figure was Saudi Arabia, which assured that it would attract many of the best players on the planet to its competition, the Saudi Pro League. A promise that, so far, it is fulfilling, thanks to the powerful financial backing of the Sovereign Wealth Fund for Public Investment, a state agency.

In 2023, Saudi teams - such as Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Hilal - invested more than $1.1 billion from those state funds to take the Saudi Pro League to the top. Some of those players who landed were former Real Madrid players Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, among others.

In this last transfer window, although they have reduced their spending volume, they did not fall short and disbursed around 500 million dollars on footballers and not only veterans who can be seduced by high contracts at the end of their career - such as the Spanish Nacho Fernandez, former Real Madrid player - but also some who still have years of career ahead of them - such as the French Moussa Diaby or Mohamed Simakam.

This is the amount spent by the big European teams

After Chelsea and Manchester United, the next big European team that appears in the ranking of those who spent the most was Atlético de Madrid which, with players like Argentine Julián Álvarez, Norwegian Alexander Sorloth, Englishman Conor Gallagher or Spaniard Robin Le Normand allocated from their coffers some 205 million dollars.

Still in Spain, the other two big teams, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, appear far down the list. The former only spent $53 million on one player, Brazilian youngster Endrick. The other signing, Kylian Mbappé, arrived for free. The second one, disbursed a little more, 64 million dollars, on two players: the Spaniards Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor. The serious economic problems that the blaugrana team is going through prevent them from signing more players.

Returning to the Premier League, Manchester City made a minimum outlay of $28 million. Another of those who did make a significant outlay was Aston Villa who, for their return to the UEFA Champions League after 42 years without playing in it, invested $195 million. Tottenham spent $165 million on new signings, while Arsenal spent $121 million. For its part, Liverpool spent $46 million.

The Paris Saint-Germain, following Mbappé's departure, bought new players for a total sum of $188 million and the Bayern Munich, $157 million. From Serie A, the team that invested the most in new players was Juventus Turin ($180 million), followed by Napoli ($166 million), Atalanta ($107 million) and Roma ($101 million). Eternal rivals AC Milan and Inter Milan shelled out practically the same amounts ($80 million and $77 million, respectively).

The most relevant movements of this transfer market.

The Mbappé's signing by Real Madrid is the one that had the most repercussion in this market. After years in which it seemed that he was going to land at the reigning Champions League champion and that it did not end up materializing, finally this summer the French player landed at the Santiago Bernabeu. And he did it for free, after finishing his contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

Another of the big moves of this period was that of Victor Osimhen. One of the best strikers of the moment declared that he would never again play in the Napoli shirt, his previous team, and his name sounded for many of the big teams in Europe, such as Paris Saint-Germain or Chelsea. Saudi Arabia was also interested in his services. But, in a drastic turn of events, the Nigerian player will finally wear the shirt of Galatasary, one of the most important teams in Turkey.

After a good spell at Manchester City, Argentine Julián Álvarez packed his bags and headed for Spain, to join his compatriot Diego Simeone at Atlético de Madrid, where he will be one of the team's big stars. Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt, at 25, continues to travel around Europe and will now play for Manchester United, after spells at Ajax, Juventus and Bayern Munich. Other signings that have had a major impact this market were those of Dani Olmo (FC Barcelona), Michael Olise (Bayern Munich), Joao Felix (Chelsea) or Conor Gallagher (Atlético de Madrid).