Manchester United have spent more money on assembling their current squad than any other football club on the planet.
A new report from the CIES Football Observatory reveals that the current crop of players at Old Trafford have cost £991.7m globally – beating the £977.9m spent by Premier League rivals Chelsea.
Manchester city Third place, with a team costing £898.5 million, is followed by Paris Saint-Germain (862.3 million pounds sterling), Arsenal (720.9 million pounds sterling), spurs (714.9 million pounds sterling), Liverpool (664 million pounds sterling), real madrid (610.5 million pounds sterling), Newcastle (570 million pounds sterling) and West Ham (£435.5 million).
The report breaks down total spending by position and reveals that only Paris Saint-Germain spent more than Manchester United on current strikers.
The Red Devils also spent £330.3m on their current defenders – despite the club’s defensive back problems – while only Liverpool spent more on goalkeepers.
Real Madrid spent the most money on their new midfield, spending £115m on it Jude Bellingham Alone during the summer transfer period.
Football Observatory’s figures only include transfer fees for current team players – factoring in loan fees and potential additions. Some values differ from Sky Sports figures.
Newly upgraded Luton It was the only club in the Premier League not to feature in the top 100 – while the Championship teams did Leicester (26th place, £242.3 million), Southampton (34th place, £196.6m), Leeds (35th place, £194.9m) and Norwich (80th place, £65.5m) entered the list with the Italian team Parma (£89.7m) are the only other Second Division side to feature.
The Italian League occupied the second tier in terms of overall representation in the rankings with 15 teams, followed by the remaining five major leagues in Europe: La Liga in Spain (12), Ligue 1 in France and the Bundesliga in Germany (11 each).
The Saudi Professional League was represented by four teams and rose to joint sixth place – on par with the EFL Championship – following the league’s explosive summer transfer window.
All four clubs are owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which also owns Newcastle, spending a total of £685.3m on new arrivals this summer, according to Transfermarkt figures.
