The Farmers League DESTROYS the Premier League

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 4 Feb 2024 14:03 GMT
• 3 min read

Ligue 1 was surprisingly the biggest spending league among Europe's big five championships during the January transfer window.

For the first time since 2019, the Premier League wasn't the top spending league globally during a transfer window.

Ligue 1 splashed out €198.9 million during the January 2024 market, blowing away the Premier League, who were the second biggest spenders after paying out €121.3m.

PSG and Lyon were the biggest spenders in France. The Ligue 1 champions bought Brazilians Lucas Beraldo and Gabriel Moscardo for €20m each. Lyon, meanwhile, spent €56m in total on the likes of Malick Fofana, Gift Orban, Orel Mangala and Said Benrahma. That made them the biggest spending club in all of Europe.

Premier League spending plummets

Hampered by FFP regulations, the Premier League saw a huge decrease in spending from January 2023. A year ago the league spent €842m on players in the January market. This time around they spent seven times less at €121.3m.

Crystal Palace and Tottenham were the two biggest spenders in the Premier League. Palace notably bought Adam Wharton from Blackburn Rovers and Daniel Munoz from Genk in the final days of the window. Tottenham's €25m purchase of Radu Dragusin from Genoa was one of the most eye-catching signings of the window.

However, big guns Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle did not spend a penny.

Serie A is not that far behind the Premier League in spending after splashing out €107.7m. Napoli bought in four players, including Cryil Ngonge from Verona for €18m. Roma, Bologna and Genoa were also active.

La Liga is down in fourth place after spending €92.2m. Barcelona account for much of that. The Catalans spent the second largest amount among clubs in January, as the cash-strapped Catalans broke the bank to sign Brazilian wonderkid Vitor Roque for €40m.

Finally, the Bundesliga is fifth among Europe's big five leagues after spending €86.8m. Bayern Munich spent €30m of that on Sacha Boey from Galatasaray alone. Another €25m went on Napoli's Eljif Elmas, who signed for Leipzig.