The 10 clubs to make the most money from transfer sales this summer
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 4 Sept 2021 11:51 BST
- 4 min read
Italian giants Inter are the club who received the most money in transfer fees this summer.
Inter are currently in a perilous position financially and were forced to sell off several top quality assets to keep themselves afloat.
In the 2020/21 season under Antonio Conte, they won the Scudetto for the first time in over a decade, as Juventus' domination over Italian football finally came to an end.
Conte was expecting funds to strengthen his squad for an assault on the Champions League, but in a dramatic turn of events, he would actually resign after being informed that the squad would instead be weakened via player sales.
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Achraf Hakimi was the first to go, as he signed for Paris Saint-Germain for around €70 million, but the real hammer blow when Chelsea made their interest known in bringing back Romelu Lukaku to Stamford Bridge.
Eventually, Inter sold their top goalscorer from the past two seasons to the Blues for a huge fee of €114m.
Matteo Politano also completed a permanent transfer to Napoli for an already agreed €19m fee.
In total, Inter received €206m in transfers this summer transfer window.
Most transfer money received 2021/22
In second are Chelsea, who managed to fund their huge move for Lukaku by selling their own assets. Some were academy graduates, while some were simply deadwood who needed to move on. In any case, the Blues managed to raise €156m this summer alone, with Tammy Abraham, Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori among those leaving the club.
The highest transfer fee on a player was Manchester City's £100m (€116m) acquisition of Jack Grealish, which puts Aston Villa in third place for the highest earners.
RB Leipzig are next up after their defence was decimated this summer; Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahima Konate were sold to Bayern Munich and Liverpool respectively for a combined €86m, but as always the German side have invested well to replace the pair. They also lost Marcel Sabitzer to Bayern, with the Austrian linking back up with Julian Nagelsmann.
Borussia Dortmund, who finally yielded to Manchester United's year-long pursuit of Jadon Sancho are in fifth place on this list.
The England international left for €85m, while Leonardo Balerdi was also sold to Marseille for around €12m. Thomas Delaney, Jeremy Toljan, and Sergio Gomez all left on permanent deals as well.
| Club | Total Fees Received |
|---|---|
| 1. Inter | €206m |
| 2. Chelsea | €156m |
| 3. Aston Villa | €128m |
| 4. RB Leipzig | €116m |
| 5. Borussia Dortmund | €113m |
| 6. Real Madrid | €82m |
| 7. RB Salzburg | €70m |
| 8. Barcelona | €66m |
| 9. Udinese | €65m |
| 10. Brighton | €61m |
Real Madrid have not spent particularly big on a player in each of the last three transfer windows, including this one, as they attempt to save as much money as possible to buy Kylian Mbappe. So far, they have made around €82m, mostly from the sales of Raphael Varane and Martin Odegaard.
RB Salzburg's policy of developing players and selling for profit continued again as they have sold Patson Daka and Enock Mwepu to the Premier League, meaning they are seventh on this list.
Rounding out the top 10 is Barcelona, who let Emerson Royal and Junior Firpo, among others, leave, Udinese, who sold Rodrigo De Paul to Atletico Madrid, and Brighton, who sold Ben White to Arsenal.
Read more about: La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League, Aston Villa, Barcelona, Brighton, Chelsea, Chelsea, Dortmund, Dortmund, Inter, Inter, Inter, RB Leipzig, Real Madrid, Real Madrid, Udinese, Achraf Hakimi, Ben White, Dayot Upamecano, Emerson, Emerson Royal, Enock Mwepu, Fikayo Tomori, Ibrahima Konaté, Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho, Jeremy Toljan, Junior Firpo, Kurt Zouma, Kylian Mbappé, Leonardo Balerdi, Marcel Sabitzer, Martin Odegaard, Matteo Politano, Patson Daka, Raphaël Varane, Rodri, Rodrigo, Romelu Lukaku, Sergio Gómez, Tammy Abraham, Thomas Delaney
