Man City, Man United and Chelsea boast the most costly squads in world football with a combined value of £2.5BILLION... as English sides dwarf their European rivals PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona
* A new study has revealed that Manchester City have the world's costliest squad
* Study ranks teams according to transfer fees invested to sign squad members
* English side Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea make up top three
* Unsurprisingly, PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona spent the most outside England
The cost of assembling the Premier League's leading sides continues to dwarf that of their European rivals a new study has found, with the squads of Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea costing a staggering £2.5billion.
The CIES Football Observatory has crunched the numbers just days after the closure of the summer transfer window and ranked teams in Europe's 'big five' leagues according to the transfer fees paid to assemble their squads.
English clubs, unsurprisingly, dominate the list with the lavish amount of talent on offer to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City putting them top the rankings with a squad cost of £917m, which includes potential add-ons.
A new study has revealed that Man City currently have the world's most expensive squad
Manchester United (£863m) have invested the second most amount of money in their squad
The reigning Premier League champions are closely followed by rivals Manchester United, whose squad has cost £863m to put together.
Chelsea complete an all-English top three at £759m after Premier League sides continued to flex their financial muscles in the most recent transfer window with an overall spend of around £2billion.
Outside of the Premier League, Paris Saint-Germain sit comfortably in fourth place with a combined cost of £730m that they hope will be enough to finally deliver the European glory that their Qatari owners crave.
Still sitting above Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona in fifth place is Liverpool.
The Reds, despite having a reputation of being financially prudent in the transfer market, have paid out £669m on talent for Jurgen Klopp at present.
Then come the Spanish pair of Real and Barcelona.
The current Champions League holders are in sixth place with a spend of £621m and then Barcelona - who have enormous financial concerns - sitting seventh with £539m.
Quote:
SQUAD COST (INC. ADD-ONS)
1. Manchester City £917m
2. Manchester United £863m
3. Chelsea £759m
4. PSG £730m
5. Liverpool £669m
6. Real Madrid £621m
7. Barcelona £539m
8. Arsenal £460m
9. Tottenham £447m
10. Atletico Madrid £432m
|
It's then back to the Premier League as north London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham take the eighth and ninth places with £460m and £447m, respectively.
Atletico Madrid then complete the rest of the top 10 with an overall spend of £432m.
Sat at the top of the standings, the two Manchester teams are the only clubs with a spend above one billion euros.
City didn't have one of their more lucrative spending summers but still invested more than £100m in the signings of Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips, Sergio Gomez and Manuel Akanji.
United were the big spenders of the window, though. They invested over £200m on the likes of Casemiro, Antony and Lisandro Martinez as Erik ten Hag bids to finally turn the club back into a superpower.
England star Jack Grealish is the most expensive member of City's squad, costing £100m from Aston Villa in the summer of 2021. Key players Kevin De Bruyne and Ruben Dias cost £68m and £61m respectively.
Antony has taken the position of United's priciest player following the departure of record signing Paul Pogba this summer.
Harry Maguire is the second costliest at £80m, with Jadon Sancho just behind him at £76.5m.
The most expensive squads in Germany (Bayern Munich) and Italy (Juventus) do not even feature in the top 10.
Perennial Bundesliga champions Bayern are lauded for their ability to pick star players up on free transfers - see Sadio Mane this summer.
But the Bavarian club have still forked out £430m to bring together the enviable array of talent at the disposal of Julian Nagelsmann - which leaves them in 11th place.
Meanwhile, in Italy, Juventus sit 13th in the list with a total spend of £407m. Perhaps the most impressive achievement in this list is the £208m spent by AC Milan to get their current squad together.
Milan won the Serie A title last year and have brought together an exciting group of young talents, such as Rafael Leao, Sandro Tonali, Theo Hernandez and Fikayo Tomori.
Code:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11182125/Man-City-costliest-squad-world-Man-United-Chelsea-completing-three.html