Top club on €183m 

Clubs with the highest transfer net spends in summer 2024/25

©TM/IMAGO

It was a hectic summer of football with Euro 2024 and Copa America sharing the limelight before the madness of the transfer market kicked in. The window closed on Friday for the majority of European leagues, including the top five divisions with the deadline day in Saudi Arabia taking place on Monday. 

Billions were spent by clubs across the world on new signings with Julián Alvarez’s €75 million move from Manchester City to Atlético Madrid the most expensive deal. 15 deals were completed for fees of €50m or higher including Manuel Ugarte to Manchester United, Michael Olise to Bayern Munich and Pedro Neto to Chelsea. The ability for clubs to spend is increasingly determined by their ability to recoup money in sales due to financial fair play rules but which clubs had the highest net spends this summer? Let’s find out – the window still isn’t closed for some leagues, including Turkey.

The clubs with the highest net spend – summer 2024/25

Few people would have expected Brighton to be amongst the biggest spenders this summer but the Seagulls had the highest net spend of €182.91m, according to Transfermarkt data. Brighton are renowned for their smart recruitment in recent years when they unearth talented players from around the globe before selling them for substantial profit. But they invested €231.2m this summer in new signings and brought in just €48.29m. As the graphic below illustrates, Napoli rank second with their current net spend more than €40m less than Brighton. 

The Italian giants expected to sell Victor Osimhen but several deals fell through with the Nigerian joining Galatasaray on loan. Ipswich Town completed incredible back-to-back promotions to reach the Premier League and their net spend this summer was €124.84m as they upgraded their squad. Five Premier League clubs feature in the top ten with Manchester United, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur joining Brighton and Ipswich Town. Al-Ittihad and Al-Nasser climbed the list after being active on the final day of the Saudi window.