The Bundesliga can welcome 225 new signings for the 2024/25 season. In the summer transfer window, the 18 Bundesliga clubs spent a total of just over 600 million euros on new players.
In international comparison, the Bundesliga was rather frugal: the clubs from the Italian Serie A spent a total of just over a billion euros on new signings, while the Premier League spent as much as 2.36 billion euros. The French Ligue 1 also spent a little more money than the Bundesliga, at 723 million euros.
Compared to the previous year, the 18 Bundesliga clubs have also kept their feet more still: in 2023/24, over 864 million euros were spent on new signings in the Bundesliga.
These are the Bundesliga clubs with the highest spending in the Bundesliga:
(Note: Only fixed transfers are included. Purchase options or obligations of loaned new signings are not included. All data via Transfermarkt.de)
TSG Hoffenheim spent a remarkable amount of money for their standards. In total, TSG paid 51 million euros for new players. Hoffenheim paid a lot for Adam Hlozek, who was signed from Bayer 04 Leverkusen for 18 million euros.
By selling Maximilian Beier, TSG was able to afford itself a certain amount of leeway on the transfer market. However, with a transfer balance of -21.5 million euros, the bottom line is still a large deficit.
German champions Bayer Leverkusen have had a relatively relaxed summer of transfers. Since the championship squad has largely stayed together, the Werkself only had to make optimisations. However, these were not cheap: Leverkusen invested 53 million euros in the transfer market.
The money went into just three new signings: Martin Terrier (20 million euros), Aleix Garcia (18 million euros) and Jeanuel Belocian (15 million euros). The Werkself were able to cash in on Adam Hlozek, who left the club for 18 million euros. If Atalanta Bergamo sign Odilon Kossounou permanently next summer, the Werkself will have a balanced balance sheet overall. Leverkusen’s balance sheet for this summer is -21.85 million euros.
RB Leipzig’s major transfer did not cost a transfer fee: Xavi Simons was loaned out again from Paris Saint-Germain. The two signings of Antonio Nusa and Lutsharel Geertruida were expensive. The Saxons paid 21 million euros for Nusa, while Geetruida cost 20 million euros. In total, RBL spent 64 million euros.
Since the transfer of Mohamed Simakan (moving to Al-Nassr for a reported 45 million euros) has not yet been officially completed, Leipzig’s transfer balance cannot yet be finalized. But even without the Simakan sale, Leipzig only has a loss of one million euros.
The surprise runner-up VfB Stuttgart showed no false modesty in the summer transfer market and landed new signings for a total of 75.5 million euros.
VfB made major additions, especially in attack: Deniz Undav came for a record sum of 26.7 million euros, and the Swabians also paid 21 million euros for Ermedin Demirovic. In return, VfB was also able to generate high revenues and has a solid transfer balance of -9.08 million euros.
BVB has embarked on a transfer offensive this summer and has clearly communicated that expenditure will significantly exceed income. Those responsible at Borussia did not hesitate and arranged several high-value deals that entailed expenditure of 80 million euros.
The two major transfers, Waldemar Anton and Serhou Guirassy, cost relatively little, with transfer fees of 22.5 million (Anton) and 18 million euros (Guirassy). However, BVB dug deep into its pockets for Maximilian Beier, for whom the Black and Yellows paid 28.5 million euros. Overall, BVB has a transfer balance of -46.4 million euros; the second worst in the league.
FC Bayern is once again the Bundesliga’s biggest spender. The German record champions spent 142 million euros on new players. The most expensive transfer of the summer was Michael Olise with a transfer fee of 53 million euros, closely followed by Joao Palhinha, who cost 51 million euros.
With revenues of 72.85 million euros, Bayern also have by far the worst transfer balance in the Bundesliga, with a difference of -69.15 million euros.
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