Transfers: Manchester City FC, the most costly squad in the European Top 5 in 2021-22 (CIES)

Manchester City FC (Premier League) is the European Top 5 club to have spent the most building its squad for the second consecutive season, with €1.08bn "committed to sign their current players (possible add-ons included)," according to the CIES Football Observatory in its "Weekly Post" published on 06/09/2021, which presented a ranking of the 98 clubs of the five major European leagues according to "teams' transfer fee spending to assemble their squads" for the 2021-22 season.

The 2020-21 English champions are ahead of Manchester United FC (Premier League), ranked second, with an estimated spend of €1.02bn. Paris Saint-Germain (Ligue 1 Uber Eats) come in third with €939m, €51m more than during the 2019-20 season, when the club had the second most expensive squad (with €888m spent).

Two Spanish clubs feature in the Top 10 of the ranking: Real Madrid CF (LaLiga Santander, 4^th with €715m) and FC Barcelona (LaLiga Santander, 9^th with €445m). Only one Italian club is present in the Top 10, Juventus FC (Serie A TIM, 7^th with €573m), while the highest spending German club, FC Bayern Munich…