Fri, January 31, 2025
International player transfers and fees reach historic high in 2024, with growing investment in Women’s Football
In football, if a player transfers before their contract expires, the new club pays compensation to the old one. This is known as a transfer fee. International player transfers hit an all-time record of 78,742 in 2024 across men’s and women’s professional and amateur football according to the FIFA (world football's governing body) Global Transfer Report 2024.
For men’s professional football, the report shows that after clubs’ spending on transfer fees set a new record in 2023 (USD 9.66 billion), the total outlay was lower in 2024 (USD 8.59 billion) for 22,779 international transfers, but still more than 15% above the previous record set in 2019 (USD 7.33 billion).
According to the report, almost 40% of all transfer spending in men's professional football was accounted for by the top 2.5% of transfers, which included fees of at least USD 20 million per transfer.
According to Reuters, the most expensive international transfer was Argentina forward Julian Alvarez's move from Manchester City to Atletico Madrid in a deal worth around 75 million euros ($78.26 million) plus 20 million euros in potential add-ons.
The top five international transfers also include Goncalo Ramos from Benfica to Paris St Germain, Leny Yoro from Lille to Manchester United, Joao Neves from Benfica to Paris St Germain and Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig to Barcelona.
With the top five transfers costing no less than a reported 55 million euros, Real Madrid's deal to sign France forward Kylian Mbappe from Paris St Germain for free represented a significant acquisition for the European champions.
Overall, clubs from England were both the number one spender and the number one recipient of transfer fees in 2024, with USD 1.88 billion spent on incoming transfers and USD 1.34 billion received for outgoing transfers. In terms of the total number of transfers, Brazilian clubs were in the lead with 1,102 incoming and 1,113 outgoing transfers.
The number of clubs that spent money on incoming transfers continued to grow, reaching a record high of 1,100 clubs in 2024. Similarly, the number of clubs that received a transfer fee for at least one outgoing transfer, 1,378, also set a new record.
The Global Transfer Report also notes growth for women’s football. In 2024, clubs continued to invest in women’s professional football, with total spending on transfer fees reaching a record level of USD 15.6 million – more than 2.5 times as high as in the previous year.
A total of 695 clubs were involved in international transfers (+11.6%), with 109 of these clubs spending money on at least one incoming transfer (+23.9%) and 124 clubs receiving transfer fees for outgoing transfers (+27.8%).
Some 2,284 international transfers of professional players were recorded in 2024, representing an increase of 20.8% compared to 2023. For the sixth year in a row, the number of international transfers in women’s professional football has consistently grown by more than 20% per year, now towering at more than three times the number in 2018 when they were first recorded.
As reported by Reuters, the biggest transfer saw American side Bay FC sign Racheal Kundananji from Real Madrid for a reported $860,000 to set a then world record in women's football.
That record was broken when Chelsea made Naomi Girma the first female million-dollar player, signing the American defender this month for a fee reported by British media to be in the region of £900,000 ($1.12 million).
The majority of international transfers were completed by amateur players. A grand total of 53,678 transfers of amateur players joining a new club abroad were recorded in 2024, once again a new high and 4.3% more than the previous year. Out of FIFA’s 211 member associations, all but four were involved in at least one amateur transfer last year, highlighting football’s universal reach. As in the previous year, Germany had the highest number of incoming transfers in 2024 with a total of 7,459.
You can view the full FIFA Global Transfer Report 2024 here - Global-Transfer-Report-2024.pdf
The interactive Global Transfer Report website can be found here - FIFA Global Transfer Report
