European clubs from the “big five” leagues spent over €5 billion during the summer transfer window for the first time, according to a Deloitte report.
Clubs from the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 broke the previous record by €0.9bn, which was set last summer, as they spent a total of €5.5bn.
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The Premier League spent €1.55bn — the most out of the five leagues — but the net spend fell by more than €50 million to €635m, which was the lowest since 2015.
Manchester United broke the world-record fee for a defender to sign Harry Maguire from Leicester City for £80m, whilst Manchester City spent a club record €70m on midfielder Rodri.
There were a number of players who left the league for big money, with Romelu Lukaku departing United to join Inter Milan for €80m, while Eden Hazard signed for Real Madrid from Chelsea for €88.5m.
La Liga clubs spent more than a £1bn for the first time as Barcelona signed Antoine Griezmann for €120m, while Atletico Madrid acquired Joao Felix for a fee of €126m.
Real Madrid also spent more than €300m, as they signed Luka Jovic, Ferland Mendy, Rodrygo and Eder Militao as well as Hazard.
The total amount of £1.37bn spent by Spanish clubs had the potential to go even higher had Barca succeeded in their attempt to re-sign Neymar.
Serie A clubs spent a total of €1.17bn with Juventus having spent €75m to sign Matthijs de Ligt on top of Inter’s deal for Lukaku, while Bundesliga sides paid a total of €740m as Bayern Munich broke their transfer record to sign Lucas Hernandez from Atletico for €80m.
Ligue 1 sides spent €670m, with champions Paris Saint-Germain splashing out over €60m for Abdou Diallo and Idrissa Gueye.