Womenforfootball.com- Here is my most recent article that was published at SWOL(Soccer Without Limit). Hope you enjoy it:
You are surely in for a surprise. Based on all summer transfers of 2014 so far, the Catalan club, FC Barcelona, always known for its academy players’ development and generation of La Masia class, have so far surpassed all other clubs’ expenditure.
1. FC Barcelona — Total Summer expenditure: €143 million
Although the most notable signing of Barcelona has been Luis Suarez, the most controversial and shocking of all has been the signing of 30-year old Jeremy Mathieu for €20 million. His transfer fee is the highest transfer fee on record for a defender.
Yes, even higher than World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro to Real Madrid.
2. Real Madrid — Total Summer expenditure: €110 million
Real Madrid giants are always in the top five list of big spenders. This season, they racked up their spending with signing of top talent James Rodriguez from Monaco. Although to their credit, Real Madrid’s summer signings have lower average age than Barcelona’s summer signings.
3. Chelsea — Total Summer expenditure: €93.50 million
Jose Mourinho, who is not shy of spending in each transfer market, has so far surpassed all other English Premier League clubs’ transfer expenditures. He has managed to sign Filipe Luis and Diego Costa from La Liga champions, Atletico Madrid, as well as Catalan playmaker, Cesc Fabregas, from Barcelona. To be fair, Chelsea also off-loaded David Luiz for a cool €63 million, so their net transfer spending is not so much.
4. Manchester United — Total Summer expenditure: €73.50 million
Louis Van Gaal has started his new job with a lavish spending spree and so far has managed to spend three times more than Manchester City’s spending this summer. Not afraid to throw around money with United’s new Chevrolet sponsorship, Van Gaal and United have closed on Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera, two big signings for the future.
5. PSG & Atletico Madrid — Total Summer expenditure per team: €58.50 million
The fifth biggest spenders are shared between France’s PSG and Spain’s Atletico Madrid. Each have spent €58.5 million on their new stars. Most notable signings were Atletico Madrid’s signing of Mario Mandzukic from Bayern Munich and PSG’s signing of David Luiz from Chelsea. Expect both teams to continue to make waves in the market this year.
Originally published at: http://swol.co/the-top-five-biggest-spenders-of-the-summer-transfer-window/35087
