At 11pm UK time (6pm ET)
today, the window for transferring players into and out of the English
Premier League will close. After all the paperwork has been filed, and
every player has stood smiling while holding up their new team's jersey,
a new record
will have been hit: Between the winter and summer transfer windows for
this season, the 20 teams in the Premier League will have spent a
combined £1 billion ($1.44 billion) on new players.
According to Deloitte,
which monitors the global soccer transfer market and provided the above
data to Quartz, this season will be the first time the Premier League
has spent over £1 billion on transfers in a single season, passing last
year's total by about £35 million ($50 million). That's about one third
of the revenue that the entire league generates in a year, according to the BBC.
Although
there haven't been many big-name transfers this winter, aside from
Swansea's Jonjo Shelvey and Tottenham's Andros Townsend both heading to
Newcastle for £12 million apiece, there were some blockbuster deals in
this past summer's transfer window. The 21-year-old Raheem Sterling
became the most expensive English-born transfer
ever when he was sold to Manchester City from Liverpool for £49 million
($76 million). And assuming there isn't any late-breaking drama this
evening, Manchester United's £58 million ($83 million) move for striker
Anthony Martial could end up being the most expensive transfer of the season in the Premier League, as well as the most most expensive UK transfer of all time.
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