2023-09-08 20:33:24
Manchester United, Chelsea FC and FC Bayern Munich have spent significantly more money on the transfer market in recent years than they have earned. But there are also top European clubs with positive transfer balances. One thing should give the German record champions hope.
The CIES Football Observatory has researched which clubs have the highest net transfer profits or net transfer losses have been made since the summer of 2014, i.e. since the last ten summer transfer periods.
To do this, the 100 clubs that were most active on the transfer market worldwide, i.e. that earned or spent the most money, were examined.
The three top sellers together made around 1.5 billion euros in profit from transfers. FC Bayern Munich appears in the negative half of the table; according to CIES, the German record champions have generated a negative transfer balance of 343 million euros since 2014. However: A new employee at FC Bayern Munich was largely responsible for his former club landing on the podium.
These are the ten clubs with the most positive transfer balances – and the German clubs in the positive half of the table.
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46. FC Schalke 04 (+21 million euros)
If Schalke 04 hadn’t been relegated, they probably wouldn’t be on this list. Since 2020, they have made a profit of 72 million euros because they had to sell their silverware to close various financial gaps. According to the study, they made a transfer profit of 16 million euros in the past transfer window alone.
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36. 1. FSV Mainz 05 (+76 million euros)
It is not surprising to discover 1. FSV Mainz 05 in this ranking. The Rheinhessen are known for investing cleverly, developing players and selling them once more. 76 million euros in transfer profits over ten years will finance Mainz’s establishment in the upper house of football.
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34. SC Freiburg (+82 million euros)
It’s similar at the sports club from Freiburg. The people of Breisgau have been doing business sustainably for a long time, but selling has been very lucrative, especially in the recent past. Since 2020 they have achieved a transfer increase of 69 million euros.
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31. Eintracht Frankfurt (+91 million euros)
The SGE has just broken its own transfer record – up to 95 million euros are expected to flow from PSG to Eintracht Frankfurt for Randal Kolo Muani. Jesper Lindström, among others, was sold for 30 million euros. Together with top transfers like Luka Jovic (60 million euros) or Sébastien Haller (50 million euros), this results in a transfer increase of 114 million euros since 2019. However, in the five years before that, they lost a lot, so that the SGE ends up at +91 million euros overall .
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27. VfB Stuttgart (+100 million euros)
VfB Stuttgart relies a lot on talent and, especially since the first relegation in 2016, has been developing young talent more specifically and scouting in young areas. The “diamond eye” Sven Mislintat, now at Ajax Amsterdam, helped. Since 2019 alone, VfB has achieved a transfer surplus of 127 million euros. Before that, however, there was also mismanagement. Overall, following ten years, Benjamin Pavard (35 million euros), Nicolas Gonzalez (25 million euros) and Co. are left with a good 100 million euros in profit.
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24. Borussia Dortmund (+109 million euros)
BVB always sells its stars for really expensive money – this summer the new Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham. But in addition to the purchase sums for the next top talents to develop, Borussia Dortmund also regularly misses out on more expensive transfers with transfers like Nico Schulz (25.5 million euros) and Co. Otherwise they might be much higher in the ranking.
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17. TSG Hoffenheim (+156 million euros)
TSG Hoffenheim is the top seller in the Bundesliga. The summer of 2019 in particular was extremely lucrative. The top sales of Joelinton (44 million euros), Kerim Demirbay (32 million euros) and Dortmund’s Nico Schulz purchase brought in a transfer surplus of 66 million euros. With Roberto Firmino (41 million euros) they set the scent mark early in this ranking in 2015.
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10. Dinamo Zagreb (+208 million euros)
None of the top 10 selling clubs would probably be considered absolute top clubs. But that’s exactly why their work is all the more impressive. They identify talent and sell them to the top clubs that are at the top of the transfer loss rankings. This also applies to Dinamo Zagreb, who are basically the contact point for all Croatian top talents – and then sell them abroad. A total of a whopping 251 million transfer surplus over the past ten years.
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9. PSV Eindhoven (+262 million euros)
PSV Eindhoven is also one of the top sellers. With a transfer surplus of 98 million euros in 2023, the Dutch are in second place among the annual sellers. A total of 262 million euros in transfer profits over the past ten years have helped the Eredivisie club to continually reposition itself.
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8. Olympique Lyon (+336 million euros)
The only clubs from top 5 leagues in this top 10 come from France – there is not a single club from the top 4 leagues. Olympique Lyon is doing really well this summer with the sales of Bradley Barcola (45 million euros) and Castello Lukeba (30 million euros) and achieved a surplus of 75 million euros in 2023.
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7. LOSC Lille (+350 million euros)
This summer, Lille made almost no profit at all. Due to several free transfers, they had to buy broadly and only made a profit of twelve million euros. But especially in the four years before that they were really on fire, making profits of 270 million euros – in the first five years of the ten-year period it was just 68 million euros.
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6. FC Porto (+352 million euros)
FC Porto also only generated a surplus of 19 million euros this summer. And in general, the glory days of FCP as a seller were a while ago. Of the 352 million euros in transfer profits, they achieved 205 million euros between 2014 and 2019.
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5. Sporting CP (+376 million euros)
In return, exports from rivals from Portugal increased. Sporting sold for 50 million euros more this summer, for 215 million euros since 2019 and has even had a transfer surplus of 376 million euros since 2014.
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4. AS Monaco (+402 million euros)
In the last five years, AS Monaco made a whopping 74 million euros in transfer losses. It is thanks to the period between 2014 and 2019 that they are so high in this ranking. Although they also had absolute star sales with players like Aurélien Tchouameni (80 million euros) in the summer of 2022, they made a whopping 125 million euros transfer loss in the transfer summer of 2019. With James Rodriguez (75 million euros) and Tchouameni, Monaco owes a lot of money to Real Madrid – they were the club’s two top transfers.
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3. FC Salzburg (+422 million euros)
FC Salzburg comes from the smallest league in this ranking. But the Salzburgers sell very consistently and very lucratively – even if they of course have a grateful buyer in the sister club RB Leipzig and so some of the money stays in the family. Nevertheless, it is very impressive how Salzburg keep signing young talents like Erling Haaland or Karim Adeyemi, giving them a lot of playing time in the league and the Champions League and then selling them at a high price. The concept works excellently, so much so that FC Bayern Munich recently brought its new sports director Christoph Freund from Salzburg. They achieved a whopping 422 million euros in transfer surplus in ten years – 289 million euros since 2019 alone.
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2. Ajax Amsterdam (+434 million euros)
Ajax Amsterdam’s strong run to the semi-finals of the 2018/19 Champions League really paid off: they made 117 million euros in transfer profits in the summer of 2019. But even in the years that followed, the Dutch always remained a seller’s club – only following a weak 2022/23 season They might hardly make any profits now. But overall they still have a strong surplus of 434 million euros.
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1. Benfica Lisbon (+764 million euros)
Benfica Lisbon is far and away at the top with a transfer surplus of 764 million euros over the past ten years. Thanks to the sale of Enzo Fernandez in January (121 million euros), they clearly lead the annual rankings with a transfer profit of 114 million euros in 2023. But such sales are not uncommon for the Portuguese.
Because Fernandez wasn’t even Benfica’s sales record. Joao Felix thinks this is worth 127 million euros in the summer of 2019. The Portuguese capital club is the top station for young talents from South America as well as from Portugal – and always sells them at high prices to top clubs from England, Spain or even France and the Bundesliga.
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