BERLIN, Germany: Football clubs have spent a record USD13.08 billion (RM51.3 billion) on international transfers in 2025, governing body FIFA said on Wednesday, as reported by German Press Agency (dpa).
The FIFA Global Transfer Report said that 86,158 players changed clubs which is also a record.
Transfers passed the USD10 billion (RM39.2 billion) mark for the first time, up 35.6 per cent from the previously highest mark of USD9.66 billion (RM37.9 billion) from 2023 and 52.3 per cent above the 2024 figure of €8.69 billion (RM41.0 billion).
The report said that English clubs led the way, spending USD3.82 billion (RM15.0 billion) on arriving players and receiving USD1.77 billion (RM7.0 billion) for departing players.
Brazilian clubs had the most transfers with 1,190 incoming players and 1,005 outgoing players.
In all, a record 1,214 clubs paid transfer fees, while 1,495 clubs received them.
While 56.5 per cent of transfers with fees were below USD500,000 (RM1.99 million), they accounted for only 2.9 per cent of total spending.
Conversely, fees above USD20 million (RM78.4 million) represented just 3.8 per cent of transfers but nearly 50 per cent of total spending.
FIFA said that 62.5 per cent of the moves involved out-of-contract players with no transfer fee, except for moves executed via release clauses.
FIFA said that women’s football also saw considerable transfer growth in 2025, with spending up more than 80 per cent to USD28.6 million (RM113.5 million) and 2,440 transfers, a rise of 6.3 per cent.
A record 756 clubs were involved. – BERNAMA-DPA
