Up to now, the Premier League has spent over 1 billion euros after less than a month of opening the summer transfer window. A huge number, far surpassing the second-placed league, Serie A (504 million euros).
The Premier League spends a lot, but is it quality? Yes, quality. The two biggest contracts since the beginning of the summer also belong to the Premier League, Leny Yoro and Amadou Onana. And it is worth noting that the Premier League has only bought 72 new players, ranking 4th out of the top 5 leagues. That shows how high the average price of a new player in the Premier League is.
Onana’s transfer from Everton to Aston Villa for 60 million euros has pushed the Premier League past a symbolic milestone this summer: spending billions of euros on new players. This figure is more than the Bundesliga (€403.53 million), Ligue 1 (€293.29 million) and La Liga (€180.44 million) combined.
Before the Belgian midfielder, many transfers worth more than €30 million contributed greatly to making the Premier League the league with the most spending. For example, the arrivals of Joshua Zirkzee and Yoro at MU, for €43 and €63 million respectively, for example.
To reach such a large amount of spending, the five major European championships completed 421 transfers in a few weeks, including internal league purchases. But to surpass the billion-euro mark, the Premier League does not need a large number of players. Since the transfer window opened on June 14, they have recorded only 72 new players, while Serie A (109) or Bundesliga (102) have signed many new contracts.
Premier League buys players at higher prices
Fewer new signings but more money means the Premier League has paid more for new arrivals. It can be seen that 15 of the 25 biggest purchases in the summer transfer window have been for English clubs. In addition to Onana, Yoro and Zirkzee mentioned above, Ian Maatsen, Archie Gray and even Gambian player Yankuba Minteh are also on the list, with Brighton having to pay Newcastle €35m for the 20-year-old who has never played a Premier League game.
English clubs have great purchasing power thanks in part to the huge TV rights from the Premier League. This tournament is sold for a record amount of up to €7.8bn over 4 years, equivalent to €1.95bn/year from the 2025/26 season. The current contract, for the 2022-2025 period, has reached €5.8bn over 3 years.
On average, a player signed for a Premier League club in the summer of 2024 costs 14.5 million euros. A much higher amount than the average of 5.05 million for each new player in Ligue 1, more than 4.6 million in Serie A or 3.9 million in the Bundesliga. La Liga only stops at 2.25 million euros/new player.
The most expensive player in each of the Top 5 European championships also shows the gap in resources and spending ability between countries. In England, young French player Leny Yoro (18 years old) joined MU from Lille for 63 million euros (including bonuses) is currently the most expensive new player in the summer of 2024. Meanwhile, in France, no deal exceeded Lyon’s Moussa Niakhate with 31.9 million euros. In Italy, it was Alessandro Buongiorno, from Torino to Napoli for 32.2 million euros.
In Germany and Spain, the arrivals of Frenchman Michael Olise at Bayern Munich (€60m) and Brazilian Endrick at Real Madrid (€48m, signed 18 months ago and officially arriving this summer) are currently the highest in the Bundesliga and La Liga.
The Premier League also leads the way in player sales
The Premier League buys and sells expensively, as does the English First Division. The Premier League and Championship are ranked 1st and 4th among the leagues that have earned the most money from player sales since the start of the summer 2024 market, with €757.43m and €199.78m respectively. Serie A is second with €376.61m. Ligue 1 is third (€257.12m).
The Premier League is not the league that sells the most, but the league that sells the most. Italy sold 128 players, compared to 110 in the Premier League, but made less money. The same goes for La Liga, which sold slightly fewer (104), but still far behind in terms of revenue.
The English Championship’s incredible position can be explained by the sale of recently relegated or almost promoted players, such as Leeds selling Archie Gray to Tottenham and Luis Sinisterra to Bournemouth. Mid-table Premier League clubs also sold to big foreign clubs.
Three of the five biggest transfers of the summer window were made by English clubs, with Michael Olise from Crystal Palace to Bayern, Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa to Juventus and Palhinha from Fulham to Bayern. All of these deals have filled the pockets of English clubs, leaving them with money to reinvest in other purchases.
