Turkish football clubs spend $198M on transfers in 2024, placing Türkiye in top 10
Image depicts a person in a suit holding a football ball along with stacks of U.S. dollar bills. (Adobe Stock Photo)
Türkiye ranked 10th in global football transfer spending, as Turkish football clubs spent $198 million on incoming players in 2024, according to the FIFA Global Transfer Report 2024 released Thursday.
The country also ranked 12th among those generating the highest transfer revenues, earning $164 million. With 402 incoming transfers from abroad, Türkiye placed 9th in this category, while ranking 15th among the countries exporting the most players, with 319 outgoing transfers.
The highest-paid transfer in Türkiye during 2024 was Youssef En-Nesyri, as Fenerbahce paid $20 million to his former club, Spain’s Sevilla.
This was followed by Gabriel Sara’s transfer to Galatasaray for $18.5 million and Moatasem Al-Musrati’s move to Besiktas for $11.4 million.
Top-spending countries on incoming transfers in 2024
The report revealed that international transfer fees in professional football totaled $8.59 billion in 2024.
A record of 78,742 international player transfers were completed in 2024 across men’s and women’s professional and amateur football.
After clubs’ spending on transfer fees set a new record in 2023 (USD 9.66 billion), the total outlay was lower in 2024 (USD 8.59 billion), but still more than 15% above the previous record set in 2019 (USD 7.33 billion),” the world football body said in the report.
“Almost 40% of all transfer spending in men’s professional football came from the top 2.5% of transfers, which included fees of at least $20 million per transfer,” it added. Brazilian clubs recorded the highest number of transfers in 2024, with 1,102 incoming and 1,113 outgoing deals.
The report highlighted that English clubs led the way in both spending and earnings from international transfers, with expenditures totaling $1.88 billion and revenues reaching $1.34 billion.
The top 10 spending countries on incoming transfers in 2024 are as follows:
| Rank | Country | Spending ($) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | England | 1880 million |
| 2 | France | 995 million |
| 3 | Italy | 938 million |
| 4 | Spain | 762 million |
| 5 | Germany | 725 million |
| 6 | Saudi Arabia | 465 million |
| 7 | Brazil | 353 million |
| 8 | Portugal | 310 million |
| 9 | USA | 237 million |
| 10 | Türkiye | 198 million |
The number of clubs spending on incoming transfers continued to rise, reaching a record-high 1,100 in 2024. Similarly, 1,378 clubs received a transfer fee for at least one outgoing transfer, also setting a new record, the report said.
