The coronavirus pandemic did not deter English clubs from flexing their financial might over the footballing world, spending more than twice in transfers than their nearest rivals over the course of 2020, with Chelsea emerging as the biggest spenders of any club. 

According to FIFA’s  Global Transfer Market Report, published on Monday, English clubs spend $1.63 billion, with Italian clubs following in second with a combined $731.5 million, AFP reported. Spanish clubs, on the other hand, received the highest amount in transfer fees, grossing $785.7 million. 

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Without specifying a figure, FIFA said Chelsea were the highest spenders among European clubs, followed by Manchester United, Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus and Leeds United. 

Meanwhile, Kai Havertz, who moved from Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea for a £75 million ($85 million) was the most expensive transfer of the year. The top 10 most expensive signings featured Arthur Melo’s transfer from Barcelona to Juventus, Victor Osimhen going from Lille to Napoli, Bruno Fernandes joining Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon and Ruben Dias leaving Benfica for Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola’s side were top of the table in terms of outgoing transfers, with 45, two more than Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb and Watford. 

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However, the number of international transfers of male players in 2020 dropped by 5.4% compared to the previous year, while total transfer fees were down significantly, by 23.4%.

FIFA said that the total amount spent on transfer fees of $5.63 billion was down by $1.7 billion on 2019, a fall of nearly a quarter to the lowest cumulative amount since 2016.

FIFA registered a total of 17,077 international transfers, compared to 18,047 in 2019 and the first decline from year to year since 2010.

There were still more transfers than in all of 2018, but FIFA said “the downward trend is clearly due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The report reveals that only 11.6% of all transfers involved players making permanent moves from one club to another, while a large majority — some 62.5% — involved transfers of players who were out of contract.

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Only 1.3% of all transfers involved a fee of over $5 million, with much of all the money spent concentrated on a select few players.

Meanwhile, FIFA said the number of clubs involved in transfers of women’s players rose by more than a quarter, reflecting “the impressive strides being made as more and more female football players are turning professional every year.”

The biggest transfer in the women’s game was Pernille Harder’s switch from Wolfsburg to Chelsea, followed by the transfer of Malawi’s Temwa Chawinga from Sweden to Wuhan Jiangda in China.