Chelsea beat Man Utd to top FIFA’s 2020 transfer spend list

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:45 CDT
• 3 min read

Only Chelsea spent more money on transfer fees than Manchester United throughout 2020, according to FIFA’s global transfer market report. 

The report, which catalogues and analyses every transfer in the sport each year, concluded that Frank Lampard’s team were the most expensively assembled, followed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, followed by Manchester City, Barcelona and then Juventus. 

As expected, the Premier League dominated the list with eight clubs within the top 20 big spenders across the sport in 2020. 

Following the Premier League was the German Bundesliga, which had four representatives within the top 20, followed by three from Italy, two from Spain and France and then one from Portugal. 

The full rankings from the FIFA report can be viewed below: 

Of course, any regular fans of the Premier League will note Chelsea’s first-place ranking at the top of the list with very little surprise. 

Following a transfer ban in the 2019/20 season, which limited the London club’s spending power to the £41 million they spent on signing Mateo Kovacic, Chelsea then unleashed an entire war chest upon the transfer market in the summer of 2020, spending no less than £222.5 million on a number of players. 

However, that’s not to say all that money translated over to immediate success on the pitch. Despite spending £72 million on Kai Havertz, £48 million on Timo Werner, £46 million on Ben Chilwell and £36 million on Hakim Ziyech, Lampard’s side have struggled to properly implement most of their new signings and currently languish seventh in the Premier League table. 

Similarly, Man United’s blockbuster signings Donny van de Beek (£35 million) and Alex Telles (£13.5 million) have struggled to hit the ground running at Old Trafford, while 18-year-old Amad Diallo (signed in January but technically bought in the summer for at least £19 million) has still to make an appearance for Solskjaer’s side. 

Although Bruno Fernandes (who was signed in January 2020 for £50 million) has proved to be a tremendous signing and alongside some of United’s older purchase, is currently helping the Old Trafford side to an unexpected title challenge in this season’s Premier League.