After the transfer market has closed in the well-known competitions it’s time to take stock. Which countries spend the most money, did anything stand out and which transfers interest us? We will discuss it here.
China and England
This transfer period will be known as the transfer period where China started to engage in the European market. It took large sums of money but eventually Chinese clubs succeeded in buying, among others, Ramires, Gervinho and Guarín. Even Atletico Madrid’s hitman Jackson Martinez headed to China after signing for top-flight side Guangzhou Evergrande; a €42 million deal. Everything seems possible in China as shown by the transfer of the Brazilian striker Elkeson, who left Shanghai SIPG to join their rival Guangzhou Evergrande for a very remarkable reason. The Chinese 2nd level club Tianjin Quanjian is also noteworthy. For a rough €40 million they managed to attract 3 Brazilian and 4 Chinese players from clubs in higher ranked competitions.
Note: The Chinese transfer market is open till 26-02-2016 00:00
With their towering TV-profits English clubs could also spend quite some money. At ‘Deadline Day’ Everton bought the Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse for +- €18million, while Stoke City bought Giannelli Imbula from FC Porto for €24.25million. All the premier league clubs together spend a grand total of +- €236million for 204 new players. To clarify the difference with other countries; clubs from the Championship spend around €38.5 million which is almost six times the amount of money that Dutch Eredivisie clubs spend on players.
Talents from Central/Eastern Europe
It seems that Central/Eastern Europe, now more than ever, are a nursery for top talent. During the last transfer period several U21 players were transferred to big clubs. The most notable transfers:
- Ivan Saponjic from FK Partizan Belgrade to SL Benfica
- Luka Jovic from Red Star Belgrade to SL Benfica
- Andraz Sporar from NK Olimpija Ljubljana to FC Basel
- Andrija Balic from Hajduk Split to Udinese Calcio
- Marko Grujic from Red Star Belgarde to Liverpool FC
- Nikola Ninkovic from FK Partizan Belgrade to Chievo Verona
- Milan Skriniar from MSK Zilina to UC Sampdoria
- Norbert Balogh from Debreceni VSC to US Palermo
- Peter Olayinka from KF Skënderbeu to KAA Gent
Construction
After Cardiff City received a transfer ban for violating the Financial Fair Play rules, they still managed to attract some players. Among others they brought in striker Kenneth Zohore through a loan construction with KV Kortrijk. Kortrijk had bought the same striker earlier that day from the Danish club OB Odense. As it turns out: both Cardiff City and KV Kortrijk are owned by Vincent Tan.
Three transfers we are curious about
To finish this article, we like to share 3 transfers we are very curious about because we spotted these players a while ago where they came up as potentials for some of the clubs we work for.
- Nabil Bahoui from Al-Ahli Jeddah to Hamburger SV
- Karim Onisiwo from SV Mattersburg to 1. FSV Mainz 05
- Thomas Murg from SV Ried to Rapid Vienna
