Spanish clubs on the road sparingly
© Imago
In the winter transfer window, the Spanish Laliga only invested 26 million euros and is therefore in 16th place in the world. Even the 2nd Bundesliga paid higher transfer sums than the 20 teams around Champions League winner Real Madrid. Compared to the other top leagues, the league of the European champion falls significantly.
After the record transfer of Stefanos Tzimas, which the 1st FC Nürnberg signed for 18 million euros and sold to Brighton & Hove Albion for EUR 26 million, the 2nd Bundesliga is at almost EUR 31 million in winter – 5 million . The Bundesliga invested seven times with 183 million euros, in the Premier League it was even 19 times with 500 million euros.
Only five clubs paid: Real Betis Sevilla (13 million euros), FC Sevilla (8 million), Athletic Bilbao (3 million), Real Valladolid (1.1 million) and FC Villarreal (1 million. ). The most expensive player was Cucho Hernández, who switched from Columbus Crew to Real Betis for EUR 13 million. Only for seven professionals did a transfer – Dortmund, Stuttgart and Frankfurt came together to nine.
“The teams that have sporting problems, such as Valencia, Espanyol or Sevilla FC, have even greater economic difficulties, so it is not easy to find quality players on the market. They are not in a good time in the league, but they cannot go on the market with the guarantee that they can commit someone who improves them, ”explains Iván Fuente, Area Manager Spain at the transfer market, the reluctance in winter.
In the summer, the Spanish first division clubs committed newcomers for 557 million euros and Atlético Madrid made the world’s most expensive transfer with Julián Alvarez. In contrast, revenue of EUR 558 million was, which was the only one of the top 5 leagues that had a positive balance. In the meantime, the investments were the slightest compared to the Premier League, Bundesliga, Series A and Ligue 1. A look at the winter editions since 2020 shows that Spanish clubs are taking significantly less money. In the five alternating periods, professionals were bought for 252 million euros, the next top league is the Bundesliga with EUR 484 million. At the top, the Premier League towers with 1.96 billion euros.
Laliga: decline in investments and competitiveness
“The Spanish teams are not doing well. Apart from Real Madrid, the rest cannot keep up with top European teams. Even FC Barcelona had problems that Dani Olmo was seen, ”says Fuente. From 2010/11 to 2019/20, Laliga had the third highest in the top 5 leagues with an average of 654 million per season. Since then, these have dropped to 506 million euros, which means fifth place. For comparison: The Bundesliga in fourth place invested an average of EUR 626 million, the Premier League even 2.44 billion euros.
The reluctance to the transfer market is also reflected in the record accesses of the clubs. Of the ten most expensive footballers who moved to Spain, only Jew Bellingham came after 2020. In the Bundesliga and the Premier League, eight of the ten highest replacement were paid after 2020, in Ligue 1 six and in series A four. During this period there are only two Spanish clubs in the top 25 of the clubs with the highest issues: Atlético Madrid with 449 million euros in 20th and three places behind FC Barcelona with 430 million euros. Real Madrid ranks to 40th place with EUR 300 million. However, the royal also attracted top players like Kylian Mbappé, Antonio Rüdiger and David Alaba to Madrid, who cost a lot of hand money.
“The financial fair play has caused the teams to improve their financial balance sheet, but it also led to a loss of competitiveness on the transfer market,” explains Fuente. Nevertheless, Spanish teams can continue to keep up with Europe’s elite. Teams from Laliga won the Champions League and the Europa League between 2010/11 and 2019/20 between 2010/11 and 2019/20. Less invested has been invested since 2020, but two titles in the premier class of Real Madrid and one triumph in the Europa League from FC Villareal and FC Sevilla were added.