English clubs boast highest combined spend on international summer transfers

Romelu Lukaku returned to former club Chelsea this summer

English clubs again had the highest combined spend on international transfers during this summer’s window, analysis by Fifa has found.

According to the world governing body’s International Transfer Snapshot published on Tuesday, in the men’s game English clubs spent a total of 1,146.6million US dollars (£832.4million) between June 1 and August 31 this year.

As was the case in the statistics for last summer’s window, which covered June 1 to October 5 2020, England topped the list with a figure that was greater than that of the countries who were second and third put together – in this case Italy and France at USD 473.8m (£343.9m) and USD 428.9m (£311.4) respectively.

The figure for England’s total spend – including Romelu Lukaku rejoining Chelsea from Inter Milan for a reported £97.5m and Jadon Sancho moving to Manchester United from Borussia Dortmund for £73m – was up from USD 1.251billion (£910m) for the 2020 summer window.

England also led the way once more in terms of the amount of incoming transfers, with the number dropping from 485 last year to 380, and outgoing ones, down from 524 to 494.

Regarding money received from transfer fees, England was third with USD 409.8m (£297.5m) – German clubs recuperated the most, USD 462.7m (£335.9m).

The report said the overall total spend on fees in the men’s game had dropped by 7.5 per cent from 2020, from USD 4.02bn (£2.9bn) to USD 3.72bn (£2.7bn) – the figure had been a record-breaking USD 5.8bn (approximately £2.1bn) in 2019, prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of international transfers agreed was very similar to last year, at 7,748 compared to 7,771 – 6,549 had fees, compared to 6,498 in the 2020 statistics.

In the women’s game, the total number of international transfers completed was 576, representing an 8.7 per cent increase from 2020 (530), and the number of deals involving a fee was up by 72.2 per cent, jumping from 18 to 31.

The total spend on transfer fees was USD 1.24m, the first time that figure had exceeded USD 1m. That was a 51.4 per cent increase on the 2020 sum (USD 821,800, or £596,565).

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