Agents’ transfer fees expected to eclipse £400m record

Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice were the biggest £100m-plus transfers this summer in the Premier League

(Getty Images)

Service fees to agents for international transfers are expected to break last year's summer window record of $500m (£397m), after a window that has seen a huge escalation in activity.

That will bring an even greater increase in a figure that has also seen fees to intermediaries rise by 400% over the last decade.

While focus has understandably been on how the Premier League has spent £2.1bn this window and the Saudi Pro League £728m, with the English competition trumping the collective £1.87bn spent by the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 all together, a significant part of this has been the amount going to agents.

The total amount from that on 684 international transfers between 1 June and 1 September 2022 was $494.4m, a 14.1% increase from the same period during 2021. That is set to shoot up.

That also comes amid research that shows ten times more cash goes to agents than grassroots clubs.