Real Madrid, Tottenham & the biggest spending clubs in the summer transfer market

Madrid were the top spenders but recouped some of that loss by selling Mesut Ozil and Gonzalo Higuain, while troubled Anzhi Makhachkala sold over €100 million worth of players

By Kris Voakes

As the clocks struck midnight across Europe on Monday night, the hectic activity of the summer transfer window was brought to a crashing halt. But a flurry of late activity helped to break all sorts of records in expenditure on the market as football once again showed its unbelievable spending power.

Not for the first time it was Real Madrid who outspent the rest, and once more it was a world-record signing which helped to tip the balance. Gareth Bale’s €100 million transfer became the latest in a string of Blancos deals to outdo all previous records.


Following Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, the Welshman is now the fifth successive player to become the subject of the highest transfer fee in making the move to the Santiago Bernabeu, and his purchase was part of a €181.5m campaign for Madrid which also saw Isco arrive from Malaga and Asier Illarramendi brought in from Real Sociedad.