Chelsea, Ajax, RB Salzburg and more: Ranking the top 20 best clubs in transfer net spend

The CIES Football Observatory have conducted an investigation into the spending of the world’s top clubs

Chelsea made the biggest net profit of any club in the world in the last two transfer windows, it has been revealed.

The London club, who served a transfer ban last summer after breaching Fifa rules on the recruitment of young players, spent just £38million on Mateo Kovacic but recouped £173.7m.

The CIES Football Observatory found that at the other end of the scale Real Madrid – who paid Chelsea over £100m plus add-ons for Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard last summer – were 181m euros in negative balance when it came to transfers.

Premier League clubs had the biggest net deficit of Europe’s big five leagues, spending 844m euros (£715m) more than they earned. Only Ligue 1 showed an overall profit, of 106m euros.

Chelsea were the only Premier League team in the top 10 in terms of net earners, something which should help them post improved financial figures for 2019-20 after recording a loss of £96m for the year ending June 30, 2019.

Check out the top 20 clubs in the world for net spend in the gallery above