FIFA transfer ‘snapshot’ confirms record spending and all-time high in number of deals

February 10 – The January 2023 transfer window saw a record-breaking 4,728 transfers made across men’s and women’s football. 4,378 of the transfers were completed in men’s football.

This compares to 3,834 transfers in the men’s game for the same period in 2022, and beats the 2020 record of 4,216players transferred.

The figures, released by FIFA in its ‘International Transfer Snapshot’ report, are drawn from FIFA’s Transfer Matching System that records all international player movement.

Out-of-contract players accounted for 62% of the transfers, while the other 38% consisted of permanent transfers, loan deals, or players returning to their parent clubs following a loan.

While the numbers of transfers were up, FIFA confirmed previous reports that the total value of transfers had also reached record levels, the bulk of it driven by English clubs.

Clubs’ total spending on transfer fees his $1.57 billion in January, $ 230 million more than the previous record January window back in 2018. The 2023 figure is a 49.4% rise on the amount spent in January 2022 ($1.05 billion).

English clubs accounted for $898.6 million –57.3% of total spending in January globally. French clubs were the next highest spenders at $131.9 million.

Diving deeper into the transfer demographics, the 18-23 and 24-29 years old age groups dominate player movement accounting for 52.4% and 39.5% of all transfers fees. Players in the lower of these two age groups accounted for 72.4% of the total outlay in January 2023.

Geographically Europe, not surprisingly, dominated the transfer window. European clubs completed more transfers than clubs from any other confederation. The $1.41 billion spent represented almost 90% of the global outlay on transfer fees. European clubs also received the most money from transfer – $1.2 billion or almost 80% of the global total.

The women’s game grew again in terms of the total number of international transfers (but the numbers are dwarfed by those in the men’s game. There were 341 transfers across borders in the women’s game, an increase of 30.2% compared to January 2022. Transfer fees were recorded at $774,300, also a new record.

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