Noah Okafor’s arrival at Leeds United from AC Milan pushed Premier League spending in this window to a record $24.17m.
The Premier League’s transfer spending spree has 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 ($24.17m).
Okafor’s arrival at Elland Road on Thursday, following Bournemouth’s signing of Amine Adli from Bayer Leverkusen, pushed the total spend beyond the 2.36 billion pounds ($3.7bn) 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 football league could even hit 3 billion pounds ($4.03bn).
While the list of big spenders is topped by the likes of champions Liverpool ($387.8m), Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, even clubs with smaller resources have been splashing the cash.
Six clubs have broken their transfer records, including Liverpool paying 116 million pounds ($156m) to Bayer Leverkusen for Florian Wirtz.
Burnley set a new club record by paying 25 million pounds ($33.5m) for Chelsea midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu, while fellow promoted club Sunderland did the same by signing midfielder Habib Diarra for 26 million pounds ($34.9m) from Strasbourg, part of a 142 million pounds ($190.5m) 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 ($201.3m), 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 La Liga combined.
Serie A is second on the spending list with about 783 million pounds ($1.05bn) 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 ($8.99bn).
