English clubs spend £1.78bn on international transfers in 2022

English clubs spent £1.78bn – more than three times that of any other country – on men’s international transfers in 2022, according to data from FIFA.

Italian clubs were second on the list, having spent a total of £543m.

The top 10 most expensive moves accounted for 12.5% of the total £5.24bn spent on such transfer fees.

Six of those involved players moving to English clubs, while Aurelien Tchouameni’s move from Monaco to Real Madrid was the most expensive.

The France midfielder was reported to have moved to the Spanish club in a deal worth about 80m euros (£68.3m) plus about 20m euros (£17m) in add-ons.

Manchester United, whose deals for winger Antony from Ajax (£82m) and midfielder Casemiro (£70m – £60m plus £10m in add-ons) from Real Madrid were third and fourth on the list respectively, were the top spending European club.

Barcelona were second on the list of biggest European spenders, while five of the top seven were Premier League clubs.

Liverpool were third, Newcastle United fifth, West Ham sixth and Wolverhampton Wanderers seventh, with Manchester City ninth.

Liverpool’s signing of striker Darwin Nunez from Benfica for an initial £64m, which could rise to £85m with add-ons, was the second most expensive deal, while City’s £51.2m move for striker Erling Haaland was the seventh.

Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk had the most outgoings with 51 players leaving following the Russian invasion of their country.

A record £2.7m, which was an increase of 62% on the year before, was spent on international transfers in the women’s game.

England midfielder Keira Walsh’s switch to Barcelona from Manchester City, for a fee of about £400,000, was the most expensive deal in the women’s game.

In terms of amateur football, FIFA said almost 50,000 non-professional players joined clubs in other countries last year.

Ukraine had the most players moving on, with a total of 5,910 transfers, because of the country’s continuing war with Russia.