Ronaldo 5th, Van Dijk 7th - The biggest transfer profits in Premier League history

Premier League clubs have never had to be smarter in the transfer market. On top of identifying the right players to sign and improve their squads in the short-term, many of the top clubs in England must also now keep an eye on the long-term potential of their signings with the prospect of selling them for big profits. Whether it be through UEFA’s financial fair play rules or the Premier League’s own profit and sustainability rules, English sides are under more pressure than ever before to maximise their profits from player sales. So which English clubs have done the best work when it comes to buying players for low fees and selling them for remarkable sums of money? Let’s take a look 

As we can see in the table above of the top 20 biggest transfer profits in English football history, there are some obvious names at the top of the list. To no great surprise, Philippe Coutinho’s €135 million move from Liverpool to Barcelona in the 2017/18 season remains the most profitable deal involving an English club. The Anfield side paid just €13m to sign the Brazilian midfielder from Inter in 2012 and made a remarkable €122m profit on him just five years later. 

The influence of Barcelona and Real Madrid 

Interestingly enough, moves involving Barcelona or indeed their LaLiga rivals Real Madrid make up much of the top deals when it comes to English clubs selling players for huge fees. No less than five of the top 10 biggest profits made by English clubs are due to Madrid or Barcelona buying Premier League players. And Madrid’s most recent signing, Dean Huijsen, actually makes it into the top 20 after Bournemouth profited by €42.9m after selling the player this summer for €62.5m. 

Coutinho and Huijsen are joined on the list by Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard and Cristiano Ronaldo, who all made the move to Madrid and netted their respective Premier League clubs huge profits. And Luis Suárez’s move to Barcelona in 2014 means that Liverpool made no less than €177m in pure profit from their Spanish counterparts over the course of just three seasons. 

The Premier League premium 

However, without a doubt, the biggest profits made in the Premier League have come from dealings involving two clubs in the English top flight. As we can see, the second most profitable transfer in English football history was Moisés Caicedo’s move to Chelsea, which earned Brighton €87.8m in profit, while the sixth and eighth were both Leicester City sales, with Harry Maguire’s move to Man Utd (€73.3m profit) and Riyad Mahrez’s move to Manchester City (€67.3m profit). Between them, the two clubs feature in the top 20 six times. In fact, when we add Wesley Fofana's move to Chelsea to the aformentioned duo, it means Leicester made a remarkable €186m profit on just three players. 

Add to that John Stones and Romelu Lukaku leaving Everton for Man City and Chelsea respectively for a combined transfer profit of €101.4m, Southampton’s €70m profit from selling Virgil Van Djik and Dominc Solanke’s recent move to Tottenham earning Bournemouth a tidy sum of €43.1m in profit and it’s clear that there are obvious tiers within the Premier League, which tend to see the “Big Six” clubs spending big on players that have thrived at mid-table or recently-promoted sides.