Record level of international transfers in 2024 - FIFA

A record 78,742 international transfers were completed across men's and women's football in 2024, FIFA said in a report published on Thursday.

Clubs worldwide spent a total of $8.59 billion (8.24 billion euros) on international transfer fees in the men's professional game, an amount second only to the record $9.66 billion outlay in 2023.

Paris Saint-Germain were the top-spending club in Europe ahead of Manchester United, Lyon, Bayern Munich and Brighton. Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest were also among six Premier League clubs in the top 20.

English teams were the number one spenders in the transfer market, paying out $1.88 billion overall, and also received the most for outgoing transfers, pocketing $1.34 billion.

Total spending on transfers in the women's game set a new high at $15.6 million -- more than 2.5 times as much as in the previous year.

That increase reflected a 23.9 percent rise in the number of clubs (109) spending money on at least one incoming transfer.

Some 2,284 international transfers of women's professional players were recorded last year, an increase of 20.8 percent compared to 2023.

It was the sixth year in a row the number of international transfers in the women's game has grown by more than 20 percent, climbing to more than three times the amount in 2018 when they were first recorded.