A total of 48.5 billion dollars in international transfer fees have been paid in the decade until 2020, football’s world governing body FIFA said on Monday.
FIFA analysed 133,225 cross-border transfers and loans between 2011 and 2020. Ten years ago, 2.85 billion dollars was spent, while the highest annual amount was reached in 2019 with 7.35 billion dollars.
Fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic meant that 2020’s figure was 5.63 billion dollars.
All transfers between clubs from different countries must be officially registered in FIFA’s Transfer Matching System (TMS), which was introduced in October 2010.
Europe’s August transfer window closes on Tuesday.