Real Madrid, five-time champion: total spending of the last UCL champions

PSG after the record

Winning the Champions League seems like a utopia and the big millionaires of the moment have had to know how to cope with it. Manchester City was barely able to be champion in the last edition and for 23/24, the title defense campaign, they could not even reach the semifinal. Of the last 10 cup editions, Real Madrid has been champion in half and Their investment in signings prior to the title has been less than the other champions, even well below a hundred. Of course, the tenth orejona of the Spanish team in 13/14, meant their highest expense of the decade, considering only the markets that preceded the European continental title.

The last champion, Manchester City, had to spend 155 million euros to become champion for the first time. Erling Haaland was Pep Guardiola’s biggest purchase that year, a Norwegian who arrived in the Premier League for 60 million euros, a figure that did not seem to exceed the limits of the British market. Apart from the star purchase of the attacker, Guardiola also brought in players like Kalvin Phillips for 49 million and Manuel Akanji for another 20 million. The curious thing is that the city club invested more in 23/24, a total of 259.6 million in signingsan expense that was not enough to find the two-time championship.

Of Real Madrid’s five titles, only two had an expense greater than 100 million euros. In his last three conquests he has not even had to exceed 50 million in expenses to be champion, a trend that could be broken in this 23/24 with an investment of 129.5 million. In the current season, Madrid signed Jude Bellingham for 103 million euros, a move that has been decisive and has been worth every penny, even closer to winning the fifteenth Champions League. In their last celebration, on 21/22, the Spaniards spent just 31 million.

But be careful, because that has not been the most moderate spending on transfers of the decade. Real Madrid itself only spent 30 million in 16/17, a season in which it recovered Álvaro Morata for the entire amount. To be three-time champion of the European competition, the capital team only had to invest 170.5 million for three consecutive campaigns. This joint amount has been less than the 175.5 million in 13/14 and other investments by clubs such as Liverpool and Chelsea, one with 182.2 million in 19/20 and the other with 247.2 million in 20 /twenty-one.

As expected, Chelsea’s championship has been the most expensive of the decade in the Champions League. The English club has been the only one of the group to exceed 200 million, a team that was the surprise in that campaign and beat Manchester City in the final. Thomas Tuchel arrived in the middle of the campaign and his finishing was stellar, already with a team built since the summer when Frank Lampard was still the coach. Kai Havertz was the biggest purchase of the European champion, a German who scored in the final match and which cost 80 million. Timo Werner was second with 53 million.

The fact is that Only Chelsea’s market in 20/21, prior to its second Champions League conquest, is the only one among the 18 highest expenses in a single season at the club level. The record, the first two boxes, is held by the same English team, a club that spent 611 million in 22/23 and 468 million in 23/24. PSG could be the most expensive champion of the Champions League in the decade, as it had an investment of 389 million in this 23/24 and is third among those that spent the most on new players in a single season.

If the French are champions of the current Champions League, their spending on signings will far exceed what Chelsea did in 20/21emphasizing that they had never invested so much money in a single course before, not even in 17/18 and 18/19 with the phenomenon of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.