8 PL clubs in top ten
©TM/IMAGO
The January window is notoriously substantially quieter than the longer summer transfer period but some major deals have still been completed across history. While clubs generally plan on spending the majority of their budget during the summer, some are forced into investing in January to cover gaps in their squad. It’s been a relatively quiet first two weeks so far with Antoine Semenyo’s €72 million to Manchester City the biggest deal.
Across history, Philippe Coutinho’s €135m move from Liverpool to Barcelona in 2018 remains the record January transfer but it proved to be a disastrous deal. The January transfer window was first established by FIFA ahead of the 2002/03 campaign and using our extensive data, Transfermarkt have compiled a list of the biggest spending clubs in the winter market.
Which clubs have spent most in the January transfer window?
The dates of the winter window often alter slightly, so we’ve analysed the spending between January 1st and February 4th since 2003 to the current day – the data was sourced on January 15th. Naturally, some leagues around the world operate different transfer windows but the ‘January window’ is abided to by the majority of European leagues. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chelsea rank first with €747m invested in new signings in January since the window was established. The €330m that the Blues spent in the 2023 is a record for a single January window and Enzo Fernández remains the second most expensive January signing in history (€121m).
As the graphic above illustrates, Manchester City rank second with €635m invested in players during January with Omar Marmoush (€75m) eclipsing Semenyo’s fee. PSG take third spot and the top ten list is unsurprisingly dominated by big spending English Premier League clubs. Juventus are the only Italian club to feature, while no Bundesliga or LaLiga club feature. Barcelona are the top Spanish club in 11th, with Real Madrid 28th and Wolfsburg leading the German clubs in 14th.