Premier League leaders Manchester City have the most expensive squad in history, according to a report published by the Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory.
The research values Pep Guardiola’s squad at £777m, with PSG second on £713m, after a January transfer window in which City signed centre-back Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for £57m.
The Sky Blues’ summer spending spree on Kyle Walker (£45m), Ederson (£35m), Bernardo Silva (£43), Danilo (£27m) and Benjamin Mendy (£52m) elevated the Abu Dhabi-owned club to new heights.
Neymar’s world-record signing from Barcelona accounts for more than a quarter of the PSG total but Kylian Mbappe is only on loan, despite an anticipated transfer fee of up to £160m to be paid to Monaco at the end of the season.
That leaves Guardiola managing the costliest-ever collection of talent.
“When you want to compete at the highest level, you need to spend,” Guardiola said last month.
“Some clubs spend 300, 400 million on two players. We spend it on six players.”
Two other teams have spent more than £640m building their squads – Manchester United (£661m) and Barcelona (£641m).
The rest of the top ten is made up of Real Madrid (£439m) in sixth, Juventus (£396m) in eighth and four Premier League teams – Chelsea (£524m), Liverpool (£408m), Arsenal (£356m) and Everton (£323m).
The researchers calculated that the average Premier League squad cost “a record high” of £260 million, more than double La Liga’s average of £116 million.
With La Liga one of the most popular leagues in the world, only three clubs – Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid – make the top 24.
This is in contrast to the Premier League where 12 of the top 25 on the list are English clubs.
Incredibly, three clubs hovering around the relegation zone – Southampton (£202m), Crystal Palace (£199m) and Stoke City (£132m) – are in the top 30.
And Napoli (£180m), who are on the cusp of winning a first Serie A title since 1990, are 21st – two positions behind struggling Palace.
Elsewhere, Everton – currently ninth in the Premier League – outspent Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich (£321m) by £2m.
Toffees boss Sam Allardyce spent £27m on Cenk Tosun from Besiktas and £20m on Theo Walcott from Arsenal last month as the Merseyside club look to climb into the top-8.
In total, 42 out of the 98 clubs on the list have broken the £100m barrier in recruitment, while bottom of the table Ligue 1 club Troyes have spent just £2m.
With the latest Premier League football TV rights deal set to be decided next week, the incredible spending shows no signs of slowing down.
