In recent seasons, La Liga has always taken the last place in terms of transfer spending in Europe’s top five leagues. This summer, that’s still happening. Even Arsenal alone spends as much as all 20 La Liga clubs combined.
The summer transfer window of 2023 has passed half way, but the Spanish teams have not had many outstanding activities.
This is also the 5th transfer window in a row, La Liga ranks last in terms of transfer spending among the 5 major European leagues. Even this summer, Spain’s top league is dominated by the Saudi Arabian league, a new force emerging from the Middle East.
Europe is restricting shopping
Up to this point of the summer 2023 transfer window, the transfer spending of European teams is at a moderate level.
Clubs from the five major European leagues (Spain’s La Liga, England’s Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1 and Germany’s Bundesliga) spent €2.6bn on players.
This is less than half of last season when they spent a total of €5.7bn. The record in recent years was recorded in the 2019/20 season, when the teams of the top 5 leagues spent up to €6.5bn to buy new players.
Premier League is still unbeatable
Another season, the Premier League has shown its financial strength and is the league that spends the most money on transfers in the summer of 2023.
The 20 teams that make up England’s top league have spent in excess of €1bn for the 10th consecutive season. The last season they did not reach that number was the 2013/14 season, with the amount of money spent was €873m. Of course, the current figure of €1.1bn is far from the 3.1bn milestone that was reported last season.
With €457m, Italy’s Serie A takes second place in this ranking. The Bundesliga is third (€403.58m) and France’s Ligue 1 (€395.25m) is fourth. La Liga lags behind in fifth place. This tournament only spent €236.7m.
Spain’s top league has consistently taken last place in terms of spending in recent years. The last time they did not finish last in the Top 5 was the 2019/20 season, when Spanish clubs spent €1.5bn to buy players.
Real take up more than half of La Liga
Real Madrid, with €128.5m invested, accounts for 54.3% of the money spent on new contracts in the Spanish league. Atletico Madrid followed the same city team in second place, but spent only €27.7m. Almeria (€12.5m) is the 3rd place team.
The defending champion Barcelona has only spent €3.4m. And like the vast majority of clubs in Spain, they choose free agents to strengthen their squad. Borrowing players is another way to reduce costs that the clubs in the country are using.
It is noteworthy that 5 teams including Athletic Bilbao, Real Betis, Osasuna, Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad have not even spent a single penny on the transfer. La Liga has only spent 25m more than the Saudi Arabian league, the phenomenon of this summer 2023 transfer window.
Arsenal alone spent as much as La Liga
Arsenal spent €231.6m on the transfer. They are the “strongest” team in this summer transfer window and the amount spent is almost equal to all La Liga teams combined.
PSG is second with €159m and Tottenham is third with €136.2m. Real Madrid is the fourth highest spending team in Europe.
Among Arsenal’s rookies, Declan Rice is the most expensive signing. The Gunners had to pay West Ham €120m for the English midfielder. This figure is €17m higher than what Real Madrid paid Dortmund for Jude Bellingham.