Manchester United and Premier League top net spend tables for last decade

Manchester United have been named the club with the biggest net spend on transfers anywhere in the world over the last decade.

United – one of four Premier League teams in the top six – racked up a negative transfer balance of €1.3bn (£1.1bn in today’s exchange rates) between 2015 and 2024, thanks to signings such as Paul Pogba, Anthony and Harry Maguire.

That was even more than Chelsea’s €1.2bn (£1bn), according to a new academic study by the CIES Football Observatory. Much of that is from the last two years, during which Chelsea have signed both Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez for fees of more than £110m.

Paris Saint-Germain were third on €991m (£826m) after spending big on superstars until recently, followed by the English trio of Arsenal (€795m/£663m), Tottenham Hotspur (€711m/£592m) and Manchester City (€703m/£586m).

Benfica were by far the world’s most profitable club in the transfer market, generating a surplus of €816m (£680m) from selling the likes of midfielder Fernandez and forward Joao Felix. 

Ajax, who are famed for their academy, were second on €473m (£394m), followed by Erling Haaland’s former club RB Salzburg on €401m (£334m). 

Benfica’s Portuguese rivals Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Braga were also in the top eight, along with French clubs Lille and Monaco. 

Premier League blows rivals away

The Premier League ran up a bigger net spend on transfers over the last decade than its next 10 global rivals combined.

Between 2015 and 2024, English top flight clubs’ net spending totalled €11.6bn (£9.7bn). That sum was nearly 50 per cent more than the net spend of the 10 other leagues with the biggest deficits over that period, including Serie A, LaLiga, the Bundesliga, Saudi Pro League and Chinese Super League.

The Premier League’s gross spending for the decade totalled €23.1bn (£19.2bn), more than double the next highest, Italy’s Serie A, on €10.9bn (£9.1bn). 

The English top division also had the biggest transfer income, of €11.5bn (£9.6bn), or roughly half of its total outlay on new signings.

At the other end of the spectrum, Portugal’s Primeira Liga generated the biggest transfer profit, of €2.4bn (£2bn), thanks to its track record of developing young talent both from home and overseas. 

England’s second tier, the Championship, was the fourth most profitable league in the world for player trading, with a surplus of €1.5bn (£1.3bn), fractionally behind the top divisions of the Netherlands and Brazil.