By David Gold
March 5 – FIFA has revealed that over $3 billion (£1.88 billion€2.25 billion) was spent last year on more than 11,500 transfers in the men’s world football market.
FIFA monitors transfers using the transfer matching system (TMS) which became mandatory in 2010.
Only 10 per cent of those transfers involved a transfer fee, with the majority of player movement being at the conclusion of contracts.
In all, just 1,100 deals in 2011 involved club to club transactions, with the average transfer fee being $1.5 million (£940,000/€1.13 million).
Though the annual salary for a footballer in 2011 was almost $250,000 (£157,000/€188,000), more than half of footballers earned less than $43,000 (£27,000/€32,000) last year.
A total of $130 million (£81 million/€97 million) was paid in agent fees, and again – unsurprisingly – 50 per cent of all transfers involved just 24 national associations.
Brazilians remain in high demand, accounting for 13 per cent of all transfers worldwide, with Argentines similarly fought after.
Players from France, Colombia, Uruguay, Serbia and Nigeria, perhaps more surprisingly, represent three per cent of transfers each.
Figures also showed that the average age of a player being transferred was 23, with the oldest single transfer involving a 46-year-old.
During 2011, a transfer was completed every 45 minutes, with the busiest day, predictably, being the end of the main European transfer window on August 31, when 317 deals were completed.
“This report gives us a lot of useful data on football transfers, highlighting the increased transparency that the TMS has provided to the transfer market,” said Mark Goddard, general manager of the TMS system.
“2011 was the first calendar year for TMS and the report is only a starting point.
“We aim to provide a unique set of information which should be useful on the one hand for football fans and the media, but also for our member associations and club managers, who require a more in-depth analysis.”
The most expensive players last year were Fernando Torres (pictured top left), who moved from Liverpool to Chelsea for $80 million (£50 million€60 million), and Argentines Sergio Aguero, who cost Manchester $60 million (£38 million/€45 million) from Atlético Madrid and Javier Pastore (pictured above, centre) who transferred to Paris Saint-Germain for $57 million (£36 million/€43 million) from Palermo.
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