LaLiga 24-25: The winter market with the lowest investment in transfers in 11 years

The winter transfer market is not usually a period of big transfers. In the Spanish championship, the most expensive signing in recent years was Ferran Torres in 2022, when he arrived at FC Barcelona from Manchester City for 55 million euros. This is the third most expensive arrival in the history of LaLiga in the market at the beginning of the year, after Diego Costa to Atlético (Chelsea, 60 million, 17/18) and Philippe Coutinho to the Catalan team itself (Liverpool, 135 million, 17/18). Despite this, it has not been 11 years since so little was spent.

The economic situation in LaLiga is far from comfortable. The clubs that make up the league have sporting needs that they cannot cover because their finances do not give them a break. The restrictive control imposed by the administrative body of the competition does not facilitate the development of the projects that the teams want to carry out. No club is looking to go bankrupt, but when it comes to building competitive squads, it is necessary to invest in signings.

Only 26 million euros invested

According to the transfer portal, Transfermarkt, LaLiga has spent 26,125,000 euros, has earned 46,250,000 and has been left with a positive balance of 20,125,000. This figure translates into 37 new signings and 61 new departures. The number of arrivals is far from the 61 signings in the Bundesliga, the 64 in Ligue 1, the 73 in the Premier League or the 142 in Serie A.

The aforementioned website has made a table in which it classifies and orders the championships around the world according to their investment in reinforcements in this winter market. In this list, LaLiga occupies sixteenth place. Above them are competitions such as the second divisions in England and Germany, or the competitions in Russia, Belgium, Mexico, Argentina, Turkey or Brazil. However, it is true that this transfer period works differently in America, as clubs make their major payments in January and not in July and August, the opposite of Europe.

The 26,125,000 million euros invested in LaLiga are shared between 7 players: Cucho Hernández to Real Betis (Columbus Crew, 13 million); Akor Adams (Montpellier, 5.5 million) and Rubén Vargas to Sevilla (Ausburg, 2.5 million); Maroan Sannadi to Athletic (Alavés, 3 million); Tajon Buchanan to Villarreal (Inter, loaned in exchange for 1 million); and Tamás Nikichister (Kecskemét, 1 million) and Juma Bah (AIK Freetong, 125,000 euros) to Real Valladolid. 6 clubs have not added any reinforcements this winter: Atlético de Madrid, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, ​​Real Sociedad, Osasuna and Rayo Vallecano.

The January transfer window in LaLiga with the lowest spending in 11 years

The figures show that the teams competing in LaLiga are not going through a good financial moment. All the clubs that have strengthened have had to show the exit door to other players. This makes the growth and development of sporting projects very difficult.

Without going any further, Barça has been counting every euro it earned with the sale of Unai Hernández and trying to transfer some discards with the aim of securing the 6-month loan of Rashford, a player who has been sidelined by the Manchester United manager. This is the winter transfer window in which the least has been spent in the Spanish First Division for 11 years: