Most expensive squad: RB Leipzig & Al-Hilal paid more than FC Barcelona

Transfer market statistics

The RB Leipzig and Al-Hilal squads cost more on the transfer market than the current FC Barcelona team – and all three together spent about as much on their players as Chelsea alone. A look at the international purchasing value statistics on TM shows how much transfer fee each club has paid for its players and how this sum relates to the current squad value.

Barça paid 327 million euros in fees for his team, which as of today has a total value of 814 million euros. The difference of +487 million euros is top worldwide in another statistic that was led by FC Bayern for years.

Out of necessity, the Catalans changed their transfer strategy from 2021 and increasingly focused on free transfer players such as Andreas Christensen or Ilkay Gündogan. These increase the squad value without incurring transfer payments and if things don’t fit, they are sold, as was the case with Franck Kessié or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

At the same time, they trusted more in homegrown players like Gavi, Ronald Araújo, Alejandro Balde and Lamine Yamal, whose market values ​​went through the roof, and strengthened themselves with top loan players in the person of João Félix and João Cancelo. Not to mention Barça’s most valuable professional, Pedri, who increased his market value from 7.2 million to 100 million euros since 2020.

These numbers not only look good in statistics, but also brought success back to the Camp Nou in LaLiga. Manchester City’s greatest sporting triumph in 2022/23 was their treble – the Champions League winners also pursued a different approach with different financial requirements. While the professional squad is continuously being strengthened with well-known transfers, the “Citizens” youth academy produces top talents year after year, who sometimes find their way into Pep Guardiola’s team and are even more often sold for high fees.

Man United with the biggest minus between purchase value and squad value

Man City’s current squad is worth 1.18 billion euros, includes 24 players who joined the team with an average age of 24.3 years and cost 992 million euros in transfer fees. Only Manchester United and Chelsea paid more. While 1.01 billion euros were due in transfer fees for the 29-man Blues team, the “Red Devils” invested 1 billion euros, significantly more than their current squad value of 882 million euros.

Although these are always just snapshots, it is not a particularly good sign if the purchase value (transfers paid) so significantly exceeds the squad value. This suggests that either the transfer fees are too high, the players are not increasing their market value as a result of the transfer, or both. Only Al-Hilal (-€113 million), which went “all in” in the summer, has a similarly large loss in the difference between purchasing and squad value (for statistics) compared to Manchester United (-118 million). . €). But part of the truth is that the Premier League clubs and some Saudi clubs start with completely different financial conditions than SSC Napoli, BVB or Atlético Madrid.

FC Bayern turns talent into stars and increases their market value

There is an increase of 467 million euros at FC Bayern when comparing the transfer fees paid and the current squad value (for statistics). If the Catalans hadn’t signed loan players worth 100 million euros on deadline day, Munich would still be number one. Why are Bayern up there? Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Alphonso Davies and Jamal Musiala, for example, were signed as young talents for around 30 million euros and developed into valuable performers who today have a cumulative market value of 310 million euros.

The Munich team also likes to rely on free transfers (Goretzka, Laimer, Guerreiro, Mazraoui) as well as players with short contract terms who can be bought below market value – record purchase Harry Kane was the exception. Thanks to the club’s successful history and comfortable financial situation, they can often attract top players without offering horrendous sums and, most importantly, the record champions can keep (almost) all of their stars. FCB currently has a squad value of €897 million.

The situation is completely different with the national competition: Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt and most recently RB Leipzig sometimes serve as training clubs for the Premier League or the heavyweights from Spain, Italy and PSG. Within the Bundesliga, all clubs have a positive balance in terms of value creation and so the squads are all worth more than the sum of the transfer fees paid for them.

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