How have transfer fees evolved over the past 10 seasons? Transfer Market An analysis of transfer market inflation

The prices clubs have to pay for footballers have skyrocketed in recent years.

Of the 30 most expensive transfers in the history of football, 29 of them have taken place in the past decade.

Here, we take a look at how the transfer market has evolved over the past 10 years.

The top transfers and the biggest spenders

On June 11, 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo became the most expensive signing in history when he moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid for 96 million euros, overtaking Zinedine Zidane as the most expensive player ever.

Since then, six different transfers have cost more than Ronaldo's and Neymar's 222m euros move to Paris Saint-Germain is now the all-time top transfer fee.

As for the biggest spenders, Manchester City have spent the most money over the past decade with 69 players bought for 1.5 billion euros.

Behind them are Chelsea (1.25bn euros), Barcelona (1.2bn euros), PSG (1.19bn euros), Juventus (1.14bn euros), Manchester United (1.06bn euros), Real Madrid (1.04bn euros), Liverpool (1.04bn euros), Inter (770m euros) and Atletico Madrid (744m euros).

Evolution of income and prices

The fact that football has a larger and larger following means that clubs' income from TV rights has been rising dramatically.

The larger followings also help teams to earn more through sponsors.

The team that made the most money in the 2007/08 season was Real Madrid, with 365m euros.

In 2016/17, the top earner was Manchester United with 676m euros, almost double.

Evolution of the average income of the top 10 richest teams

With more money swilling around, transfer fees have increased as a knock-on effect.

The following graphic outlines the average price of the 10 most expensive transfers each year between 2009 and 2018, with the yellow line showing the evolution of the figures and the blue line incorporating inflation.

Evolution of the average price of the top 10 transfers each season

The fact that prices have gone up by 12.1 percent with respect to 2009/10 means that a player who cost 10m euros in 2009 would cost 11.2m euros today.

What can we expect in the future?

The directors at the top clubs are able to spend so much money on players due to their income and this trend is projected to continue in the coming years.

As long as clubs keeping bringing in huge sums, which they are expected to, then transfer records will continue to be broken.

The TV companies hold the money and the power here and as long as they keep paying such high sums for broadcast rights then clubs will be able to fork out on transfers.