In terms of winter transfer spending, the Bundesliga is in third place internationally. According to the online portal transfermarkt.de, the 18 clubs in the German elite class spent a total of 68.273 million euros on 63 new players. The clubs in the English Premier League invested twelve times as much, at 829.81 million euros, while the record transfer from Enzo Fernandez alone cost Chelsea 121 million euros.
“We go our own way in Germany. We have the most spectators, we score the most goals, we have a democratic culture in the leagues and the lowest ticket prices. Which path is the right one will only be decided in ten or twenty years “Said DFL CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
In second place in the expenditure ranking is the French Ligue 1 with 124.90 million euros. With the Spanish league and the Italian Serie A, the other top leagues in Europe were surprisingly economical, each spending 31 million euros. Even the US Major League Soccer (57.62 million euros) and the Argentinian top league (33.98 million euros) invested more in new players.
On the income side, the Bundesliga is only seventh in the international ranking with 66.25 million euros. Here, Ligue 1 with 199.40 million euros and the Portuguese league with 166.10 million euros are enthroned well above all others. The Premier League follows in third place with 100 million euros, while Serie A (66 million euros) and LaLiga (45.10 million euros) are not in the top ranks here either.
The biggest drop in transfers was made by the English elite class with 729.39 million euros, the biggest plus by the Portuguese league with 146.10 million euros. Fittingly, the Premier League clubs accounted for nine of the ten most expensive winter transfers, with Chelsea alone having five players in the top ten. The most expensive Bundesliga signing Jonas Omlin (Borussia Mönchengladbach) is only 44th in the international rankings with a transfer fee of nine million euros.