Costliest squads: Chelsea breaks all records, Man City, Man United, Arsenal and Spurs in top five

Chelsea, with €1.28 billion including add-ons (regardless of their actual payment) and €1.15 billion without them, tops the list of clubs in the world who have committed the most money in transfer fees to recruit their current squad members (both permanently or on loan), this is according to the 470th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

The west London side is followed by Manchester City and Manchester United with amounts including add-ons also in excess of €1 billion.

Arsenal and their north London rival, Tottenham Hotspur come in fourth and fifth as Premier League clubs dominate the top five rankings.

In sixth with €772 million is Paris St-Germain, the only non-English team in the top seven.

The French outfit ranks just behind Arsenal (€798 m) and Tottenham (€787m), while outranking Liverpool (€735m).

Real Madrid (€720m) and Juventus (€626m) are the only other non-Premier League clubs in the top 10.

Victor Osimhen’s Galatasaray, Kelechi Iheanacho’s Sevilla, Maduka Okoye’s Udinese and Victor Boniface’s Bayer Leverkusen are also in the top 100.

Al-Hilal (€485m, 13th) are first among non-big 5 league teams, ahead of three other Saudi Arabia’s clubs: Al-Nassr (€270m), Al-Ittihad (€226m) and Al-Ahli (€224m).

Flamengo (€208m) clearly outranks Botafogo (€85m) and Palmeiras (€77m) for South America.

In total, 19 countries are represented in the top 100, with a maximum of 24 clubs for England (the 20 Premier League sides and four teams from the Championship).