The mind-blowing numbers behind record-breaking transfer window

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The Football Faithful

·5 September 2025

The mind-blowing numbers behind record-breaking transfer window

This past summer provided a transfer window like no other, with clubs spending unprecedented amounts of money on new signings to break a host of records.

The Premier League alone spent a cool £3.19 billion on transfers, the most ever spent by one league in a single window.

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Indeed, the English top-flight spent more than the next four biggest leagues combined, with only Serie A hitting the £1bln mark up to Deadline Day.

That means the Premier League contributed to a whopping 43 per cent of the £7.26 bln spent on transfers worldwide, which is a 50 per cent increase on last year and also a new record.

The numbers behind record-breaking summer transfer window

Liverpool dominated the headlines this summer as they embarked on a summer spree, breaking not just their own transfer record, but the British transfer record on two occasions.

Florian Wirtz arrived from Bayer Leverkusen for an initial £100m rising to a potential £116m with add-ons, which if met would have made him the most expensive player ever signed by a club from the UK.

That is, it would have been until they signed Alexander Isak from Newcastle United for £125m with £5m in add-ons on Deadline Day. In total, the Reds’ expenditure reached £446.5m including add-ons, the most ever spent by a club in one window.

Chelsea were a distant second with an outlay of £296.5m on ten new signings, but they actually made a profit after raking in a massive £314m in player sales. That is also a new record, and it doesn’t even include the £70.5m obligation included in Nicolas Jackson’s loan move to Bayern Munich.

Premier League teams are evidently more willing to do business with each other, with deals between top-flights reaching a record-high £1.1bln.

It wasn’t just the biggest window in terms of money spent, but players acquired too. As revealed by data from FIFA published on Wednesday, there were a record high number of transfers in the men’s game, with almost 12,000 international transfers concluded.

English clubs bought 535 players, with Portugal second globally on 479 incomings and Brazil third with 425.

Meanwhile, Women’s football experienced the biggest growth both domestically and around the world, with spending up around 80 per cent on 2024. That was before Thursday’s deadline, meaning the increase was even larger than FIFA’s records show.

Germany, England and the USA saw the most incoming transfers completed during the summer window.

The Women’s Super League was a hive of activity on Thursday as clubs raced to get high-profile moves over the line. Manchester City signed Grace Clinton from rivals Manchester United with Jess Park going in the opposite direction, while Chelsea bought Alyssa Thomson from Angel City for £1m.

But it was the London City Lionesses who stole the headlines on Deadline Day, signing French midfielder Grace Geyoro from PSG for a record-breaking £1.43m transfer fee.

Read – The late Premier League transfers confirmed after Deadline Day