The number of international transfers made during 2020, marked by the suspension of many football competitions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, registered a fall of more than 5 percent in one year, according to a FIFA report published this Monday.
The total number of movements listed from one country to another reached 17,077, compared to 18,047 in 2019, a total of 5.4 percent less. This is the first decline observed in ten years, according to FIFA in its Global Transfer Market Report, while specifying that the 2020 level remains higher than that of 2018.
Of all transfers from one country to another, the vast majority (14,804, or 86.7 percent) did not result in the payment of any compensation. Of the 2,273 transfers with compensation, more than half (55.7%) correspond to movements of less than $ 500,000 (413,000 euros).
The ten most expensive transfers, for which FIFA has not disclosed the amount, represented around 15% of the total compensation paid.
At the top of this top 10, Kai Havertz, from Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea, a transfer estimated at more than 80 million euros. They are followed by Arthur (from Barcelona to Juve), Victor Osimhen (from Lille to Naples) and Bruno Fernandes (from Sporting to Manchester United).
The first major transfer since the start of the pandemic was that of Mauro Icardi from Inter to Paris Saint-Germain (in which the Argentine forward was already on loan) on May 31, 2020 for 60 million euros.