LONDON :The Premier League’s transfer spending spree reached record levels with more than a week of trading to go as promoted Leeds United signed AC Milan forward Noah Okafor for a reported 18 million pounds ($24.17 million) on Thursday.
Okafor’s arrival at Elland Road, following Bournemouth’s signing of Amine Adli from Bayer Leverkusen, pushed the total spend beyond the 2.36 billion pounds splashed out in the 2023 summer window, according to FootballTransfers.com.
Several other big-money deals between now and the closing of the window, including the likely sale of Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace to Arsenal, mean spending by the world’s most lucrative soccer league could even hit 3 billion pounds.
While the list of big spenders is topped by the likes of champions Liverpool (289 million pounds), Chelsea (246 million), Manchester United (208 million) and Arsenal (194 million), even clubs with smaller resources have been splashing the cash.
Six clubs have broken their transfer records, including Liverpool paying 100 million pounds, and another 16 million in add-on payments, to Bayer Leverkusen for Florian Wirtz.
Burnley set a new club record by paying 25 million pounds for Chelsea midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu while fellow promoted club Sunderland did the same by signing midfielder Habib Diarra for 26 million pounds from Strasbourg, part of a 142 million pounds squad-strengthening drive.
Despite being outside the Premier League for eight seasons, Sunderland have spent more than any club in Europe’s other top leagues apart from Spain’s Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.
Nottingham Forest broke their transfer record twice during the current window in which they have spent almost 150 million pounds, including the signings of Switzerland winger Dan Ndoye from Bologna and winger Omari Hutchison from Ipswich Town.
Spending by England’s Premier League this summer is more than that of Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1 and Spain’s LaLiga combined.
Serie A is second on the spending list with around 783 million pounds on player investment although the league’s clubs have recouped more than that in sales.
The Premier League’s muscle in the transfer market is largely explained by huge broadcasting deals. This season is the first of a four-year domestic TV rights deal worth a record 6.7 billion pounds.
($1 = 0.7449 pounds)
