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The G-8 That Broke Banks in Summer Transfer Windows
Just as the transfer market in Europe is bubbling with unfolding events, so are the banking halls as vaults are being opened and closed with huge amounts either coming out or inflowing into players and clubs’ accounts.
The world is at the verge of witnessing the biggest movement of money in football history when Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior moves from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain. Courtesy of 90min, the world’s largest football media platform, Sports Village Square brings to you the eight teams that have had to pay ridiculous amounts during summer transfer.
8. Paris Saint-Germain – Summer of 2012
Total spend: £144.5m
In their first transfer window with the Qatari owners on board, Paris Saint-Germain went all-out ahead of the 2012/13 season, spending nearly £150m on signing seven of Europe’s brightest and most experienced players.
The double swoop of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic from AC Milan was worth in excess of £55m, while the likes of Lucas Moura, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marco Verratti helped put the French side on the map.
7. Manchester United – Summer of 2016
Total spend: £147m
Last summer was a big one for Manchester United. Two of football’s biggest personalities, Jose Mourinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, joined the club, but neither are included in United’s total transfer spend.
Rather, the world’s most expensive player, Paul Pogba, as well as the additions of Armenian playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan and no-nonsense defender Eric Bailly, cost a combined fee of £147m.
6. Manchester City – Summer of 2015
Total spend: £147.5m
Manchester City are serial spenders when it comes to the transfer window, but even by their own lofty standards the summer of 2015 was an expensive one, as they captured five players for a combined fee of nearly £150m.
While Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne represented the bulk of the spending at nearly £100m together, Fabian Delph, Patrick Roberts and Nicolas Otamendi were hardly on the cheap side.
5. Barcelona – Summer of 2014
Total spend: £148m
Newly installed manager Luis Enrique was backed by the Barcelona owners to return to winning ways, following a disappointing 2013/14 campaign and the flurry of signings had the desired effect, with Barca finishing the season as treble-winners.
The main expenditure went on Luis Suarez, who cost £65m from Liverpool, while the arrivals of Claudio Bravo, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ivan Rakitic, Thomas Vermaelen and Jeremy Mathieu took the spending almost to £150m.
4. Real Madrid – Summer of 2013
Total spend: £148.5m
Beating Barcelona by just £500,000 to 4th spot here, Real Madrid broke the world record in September 2013 when they brought Gareth Bale to La Liga, signing a cheque for around £85m.
The Welshman was joined by Dani Carvajal, Casemiro, Isco and Asier Illarramendi, the former being the second priciest signing of that summer for Los Blancos, and the new arrivals contributed to the club’s unprecedented ‘La Decima‘ success.
3. Manchester United – Summer of 2014
Total spend: £149m
After the disaster of David Moyes’ stewardship the year before, Manchester United’s owners gave new boss Louis van Gaal a transfer warchest ahead of the 2014/15 season and he gladly accepted it, bringing in five major players.
The Red Devils broke a British transfer record when they acquired Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid for almost £60m, while the likes of Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind and Ander Herrera also came through the doors of Old Trafford.
2. Manchester City – Summer of 2017
Total spend: £202m
The Citizens find themselves this summer as having the second most expensive transfer window of all time for a club, after a number of pricey acquisitions following a somewhat disappointing campaign last year.
Kyle Walker (£45m), Benjamin Mendy (£52m), Ederson (£35m), Danilo (£26m) and Bernardo Silva (£43m) have all signed on the dotted line for Pep Guardiola’s men and the spending might not even be done yet!
1. Real Madrid – Summer of 2009
Total spend: £230m
The summer of 2009 saw Real Madrid begin a new dawn of the Galacticos era, by breaking the world record not once, but twice in a matter of week as they followed the £56m capture of Kaka with the £80m signing of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Also arriving to the Spanish capital prior to the start of the 2009/10 season were Xabi Alonso (£30m from Liverpool), Karim Benzema (£31m from Lyon) and Raul Albiol (£13.5m from Valencia).
UEFA appears poised for an emergency vote on suspending Israel from European competition next week, with national federations scrambling to position themselves amid mounting political pressure following calls for action.
The brewing crisis intensified this week when United Nations experts called for Israel’s suspension from international football amid the unfolding genocide in occupied Palestinian territory.
A source confirmed that Europe’s soccer body could potentially decide next week to vote on whether to suspend Israel from European competition.
Should UEFA vote to ban Israel, it would put the organisation on a collision course with the government of the United States — co-hosts for the 2026 World Cup — which is vehemently against such a motion.
“We will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup,” a spokesperson for the U.S. state department told Sky News.
But even though UEFA has the power to suspend Israel or its clubs from their competitions, it may not be able to stop them from competing in World Cup qualifiers, which fall under the ambit of global soccer body FIFA.
The general secretaries of all UEFA national associations are meeting this week in Marbella, where Israel is not officially on the agenda, but officials expect UEFA to call an emergency vote next week.
FIFA did not respond to a Reuters request for comment while UEFA declined to comment.
Palestinian Football Association president Jibril Rajoub said Israelis should not be allowed to participate in any matches, whether they are under UEFA or FIFA.
“Israel has violated the principles, values and FIFA’s statutes. Therefore, I believe that Israel should be sanctioned,” Rajoub told TV2.
“The sanctions should come from UEFA and FIFA.”
WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS
Israel’s national team are set to face Norway and Italy, the top two teams in their World Cup qualifying group, next month.
“We don’t have any indications that we are facing such an act (UEFA suspension),” a spokesperson for the Israel Football Association told Reuters.
“We are focusing on our international matches against Norway and Italy.”
Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) is one of the member associations that have been the driving force behind calling for a meeting on the Israel situation. The NFF declined to comment.
Lise Klaveness, the president of the NFF and a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, has also been vocal about the crisis in Gaza ahead of her country’s home game against Israel on October 11.
“Neither we nor other organisations can remain indifferent to the humanitarian suffering and disproportionate attacks that the civilian population in Gaza has been subjected to for a long time,” Klaveness said in a statement last month.
“We want to donate the proceeds (from the game) to a humanitarian organisation that saves lives in Gaza every day and provides active emergency aid on the ground.”
The Dutch football federation (KNVB) said it knows nothing about a vote to suspend Israel.
“As soon as the football association receives a message about this, it will take a position,” the KNVB told Dutch outlet NOS.
Last week, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Israel should be banned from international sports competitions. However, officials from the Spanish FA (RFEF) have kept a low profile on the matter.
Israel maintains that its war is not against the population of Gaza but against the Hamas militant group whose fighters led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and precipitated the war.
The subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people, according to local health officials.
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A hat-trick from George Agha and a sublime free-kick goal from David Edeh ensured a comfortable start for five-time world champions Nigeria in the WAFU-B U17 Championship, as the Golden Eaglets routed Baby Cheetahs of Benin Republic 4 -1 in Yamoussoukro on Wednesday.
Agha converted from the spot three minutes into the game after Boluwatife Thompson was hacked inside the box.
Edeh displayed fantastic football artistry to score from a free-kick in the 5th minute of the encounter.
The Eaglets were in cruise control as Agha bagged his brace in the 14th minute. The charges of Manu Garba were very dominant with a three-goal advantage.
Warris Soumanou in goal for Benin Republic was caught napping and his error of judgement gave the Eaglets another goal after a beautiful exchange of passes and dribbles between Thompson and Edeh, which set up Agha for his hat-trick in the 32nd minute.
It was raining goals and it was the turn of the Beninoise in the 45th minute, as a low drive from Jeremy Zannou gave the Baby Cheetahs a consolation goal.
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Mohamed Salah’s dramatic stoppage-time penalty ensured Liverpool maintained their winning start to the Premier League season with a 1-0 victory at promoted side Burnley on Sunday.
With British record signing Alexander Isak forced to wait for his Liverpool debut having been left out the squad for the trip to Lancashire, the champions struggled to break down a dogged home side in the first half.
After a regroup at the break, the visitors upped the ante in the second half, with Dominik Szoboszlai finally forcing a fine save from Martin Dubravka in the Burnley goal.
Burnley were holding on for a well-earned point with ease, before the ball agonisingly struck substitute Hannibal Mejbri’s arm in the penalty area and Salah slotted the spot kick into the net in the 95th minute to break home hearts.
Liverpool are still to really get going this season, requiring a winner in the last 10 minutes of all four of their league victories so far. The goal that clinched an undeserved success at Turf Moor was certainly the most fortunate.
After one of the longest transfer sagas in Premier League history finally reached its expected conclusion, Liverpool supporters were forced to wait two weeks for their first glimpse of their 125-million-pound ($169.45-million) goal machine due to the international break.
While coach Arne Slot said this week that Isak would have to be utilised carefully due to his previous injuries and lack of action so far this season, the Swede was still expected to at least be on the bench at Turf Moor.
The wait goes on as, without their expensive new forward, Liverpool mustered just one shot on target in the first half, from left-back Andrew Robertson.
Burnley, who conceded the fewest goals in English football league history last term to earn them promotion, otherwise frustrated the champions with ease. Even Lesley Ugochukwu’s red card for two bookings in the 84th minute did not seem to fluster them.
Even without Isak, Liverpool still had much attacking talent on the Turf Moor pitch but they just could not find that killer pass.
Salah was especially below par but he made no mistake in the most pressurised moment after Hannibal had stuck up an arm to block Jeremie Frimpong’s cross
The champions’ impressive Premier League goalscoring streak stretches to 38 games nonetheless, their longest such run in the competition.
-Reuters
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