The Ligue 1 outfits were the biggest money maker and the biggest spender during the summer window, with Real Madrid and Arsenal also coming out ahead
Monaco made an astonishing €289 million in profit from their transfer activity in the last window, with Ligue 1 rivals Paris Saint-Germain the biggest spenders as the world record transfer for Neymar saw the club post highest negative balance at -€343m.
The CIES Football Observatory has released analysis of the transfer activity in Europe’s top-five leagues and found Monaco generated €394m in player sales, while only spending €105m of that on replacements.
Monaco 21/10 to beat RB Leipzig
Article continues below
Editors' Picks
Juve on alert: Exiled Icardi may have already played his final game for Inter Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over
The Ligue 1 champions allowed Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Mendy, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Bernardo Silva to leave in lucrative deals.
Monaco’s net balance would have been even higher had Thomas Lemar joined Arsenal on deadline day, Arsene Wenger having confirmed the Gunners made a €100m bid.
Borussia Dortmund made the second biggest profit from their transfer activity, their dealings generating a positive net figure of €110m with Ousmane Dembele’s switch to Barcelona – which could reach a value of €147m – the biggest contributor.
Lyon were third on the list having made €72m. They received €129m in sales including Alexandre Lacazette to Arsenal and Corentin Tolisso to Bayern Munich.
Real Madrid’s frugality in the transfer market continued, as they generated revenues of €47m through their dealings, Alvaro Morata joining Chelsea in their highest-profile departure.
Arsenal also made a profit despite breaking their transfer record to sign Lacazette for €60m. He was the only player they paid a fee for in the window, while they made €86m in sales, boosted by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s deadline-day move to Liverpool.
Three Premier League sides also landed among those with the biggest losses, with Manchester United (-€186m), Manchester City (-€173m) and Chelsea (-€106m) all just behind AC Milan on a negative of €189m.
Of the five leagues, La Liga was the only league to make an overall profit on transfer activity.
Clubs in Spain’s top flight cumulatively made €9m, but Ligue 1 lost €55m and the Bundesliga’s net outlay was an €81m loss. Serie A’s negative balance was €139m.
The Premier League clubs took the biggest losses, splashing out €835m more than they received for players over the course of the window.