Manchester City assemble first billion-euro squad in football history

Pep Guardiola’s tutored Manchester City side have become the first club in the history of football to invest over €1,014 billion ($1.10 billion) on the transfers of players that make up its current squad, according to research carried by CIES Football Observatory.

Manchester City won the domestic treble last season, broke its transfer record earlier this year spending €168 million in the summer, which included a club-record €70 million fee for Rodri and €65 million on Joao Cancelo.

Second on the list are Paris Saint-Germain, who spent €104 million. Their biggest arrivals in the transfer window were Abdou Diallo and Idrissa Gueye, at a cost of €32 million and €30 million, respectively.

Real Madrid are third on the list after a squad overhaul that included the arrivals of Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic, Ferland Mendy, Eder Militao and Rodrygo, with their spending totalling €308 million.

The Premier League champion has spent 32 times more than Norwich City on its squad of players.

Man City, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s investment company Abu Dhabi United Group, was also found to be the biggest spender on player transfers in the past decade.

City has spent €1,368 billion on transfers ($1,809), with Barcelona just behind on €1,525 billion ($1,685 billion).

Chelsea, PSG, Juventus, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Liverpool are all recorded to have all spent over €1 billion ($1.1 billion) on transfers over the past 10 years.

Man City also had the largest net spend deficit between 2010-2019 (-€1,091billion /-$1.2 billion), ahead of PSG, Manchester United and Barcelona.

English Premier League clubs alone have a total net negative balance of €6.5 billion ($7.2 billion).

French club Lille had the most positive net balance for transfers followed by Monaco, Genoa, Lyon and Udinese.

French club, Monaco, received the highest earnings for its players between 2010-2019 from clubs playing in Europe’s top five leagues.

Manchester City assemble first billion-euro squad in football history

Monaco has raked in €1,029 billion ($1.135 million)) from player sales over the past decade which included offloading Kylian Mbappe to PSG for a reported €180 million ($199 million).