Global spending on winter market transfers reaches pre-pandemic levels

The figures for the transfer window of the winter market have revealed a significant improvement in the football industry.

A report prepared by FIFA, supported by the transfer registration system, reveals that spending on signings and the number of transfers has been at pre-pandemic levels.

The 1,000 million euros disbursed by the clubs in the winter market of 2022 are a record very close to the 1,100 million they spent in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2021, the year in which the economic crisis derived from the pandemic, winter transfer spending was 516 million euros, just over half invested in the recent transfer window.

European football, centered around its major leagues, is the locomotive of this rebound, accounting for 911 million euros, 90% of spending on transfers.

The differences in the amount invested by the UEFA clubs with those of the rest of the confederations show the strong gap that exists.

In South America it does not reach 50 million euros, in Asia it does not reach 30, in Central America it barely exceeds ten million, in Africa it does not reach three and in Oceania spending has been zero.

“The football industry is recovering, the turnover volumes of the clubs are already almost at the same point as before the coronavirus crisis.

Box office revenues have recovered and that has been key”, LaLiga sources warn.

The opulent English clubs are the ones that have invested the most in strengthening their squads (306 million euros), followed by the Italians (99) and the Spanish (97).

In the three leagues there have been individual operations with values ​​that also refer to the levels prior to the pandemic.

Liverpool paid 45.5 million to Porto for Colombian Luis Díaz and Newcastle 42 to Lyon for midfielder Bruno Guimaraes.

In Italy, Juventus has marked the highest transfer of this winter market with the 80 million euros paid to Fiorentina for the Serbian scorer Dusan Vlahovic.

In Spain,

The 55 million euros transferred by Barcelona to Manchester City to acquire Ferran Torres have meant the spending ceiling disbursed by a player.

“The clubs, especially all the big ones, are starting to lose their fear because their income is starting to increase and it shows.

The rest are still waiting to consolidate their accounts, probably, next summer a more aggressive movement will begin to be seen in the market for the second tier of clubs, ”says an intermediary who is involved in market operations in England, Spain and Germany.

The number of international transfers in men's football rose to 3,534, which is 28% more than last winter (2,761) and also figures similar to those of the 2018 (3,410), 2019 (3,866) and 2020 markets ( 4216).

Of the total transfers, 60.4% belong to players without a contract, the majority of minor leagues from outside Europe that are now starting the competition, 16.2 are loans, 13.2 transfers and 10.1 are players returning from assignment.

Brazil leads the export of soccer players in this winter market with 176, followed by England (168), Argentina (123), the United States (113) and Spain (111).

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