October 15: Eintracht Frankfurt have generated more value from their transfer business than any club in world football over the past five years, according to the latest CIES study, while Manchester United sit at the opposite end of the European table.
CIES calculates that Frankfurt have added €527m to the value of players recruited from outside their academy since 2022, narrowly edging out Real Madrid at €526m. Paris Saint-Germain is third with 490 million euros, followed by Benfica (488 million) and Manchester City (447 million).
The calculation also compares the fee paid with the eventual sale price; for those still at the club, measure their purchase cost against the Observatory’s current estimated transfer value.
On that basis, Frankfurt have accumulated €293 million in realized appreciation and have another €234 million tied up in the players they still have.
It’s a model that the Bundesliga club has refined remarkably well. Randal Kolo Muani arrived from Nantes on a free transfer in 2022 and left for Paris Saint-Germain a year later for a club-record €95 million.
Omar Marmoush followed a similar route, joining for nothing from Wolfsburg before earning a move to Manchester City, while Hugo Ekitiké’s 18 months in Frankfurt ended with a lucrative move to Liverpool.
The Real Madrid number tells a rather different story. Only 27 million euros of its 526 million euros profit has been achieved through sales. The other 499 million euros come from players who are still on the books, helped enormously by Kylian Mbappé who arrives without any transfer and Arda Güler, signed for around 30 million euros, now valued by CIES at 125 million euros.
Stuttgart, Villarreal, RB Leipzig, Union Saint-Gilloise and Atalanta round out the top 10, while Bournemouth are in 11th place with an estimated increase of €349m. Brighton are 13th on €323m and Brentford 16th on €302m, another reminder of how effectively some of the Premier League’s smaller operators have used recruitment as an asset-building exercise.
The lower part of the ranking makes for less comfortable reading.
Al-Hilal record the biggest depreciation worldwide at €502m, with the deep-pocketed Saudi clubs disproportionately among the poorest. This figure does not mean a loss of cash of 502 million euros; reflects the difference between the players’ cost and their subsequent sale price or current estimated value.
Manchester United are the worst of any European club with less than €405 million, an uncomfortable figure at a particularly awkward time for the club’s recruitment operation.
Lisandro Martínez has spent the past 48 hours publicly questioning the hierarchy following United’s 2-0 Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid, accusing the club of failing to finish third last season and return to Europe. He singled out director of football Jason Wilcox and said he expected more investment “from the top”.
United spent around £155m on four big signings in the summer, but Martinez’s complaint centered on the depth and balance of the squad rather than the absence of spending altogether. He later clarified his comments without retracting them, saying they stemmed from frustration but maintaining the club needed to show more ambition.
Contact the writer of the story, Harry Ewing, a (email protected)