Buy low, sell high is typically the mantra when investing in the stock market; it’s a stance that could afford you the chance to maximise your return on investment. But when it comes to football finances, the opposite – buy high, sell low – can be true for clubs that acquire players in their prime years… who subsequently regress in line with the sands of time.
That’s an accusation that could be levelled at English clubs in recent years, whose mass fortune enables them to buy in talent… as opposed to develop it themselves. In France, however, there’s still a genuine appetite for developing young players and then selling them on for lofty fees – a business model not without merit, when you consider Les Bleus’ success in the World Cup and European Championships in the modern era.
New data from the CIES Football Observatory reveals that French clubs have generated more revenue – much more, in fact – than any other nation when it comes to revenue generated from player sales to overseas teams. They’ve collected £3.5 billion in transfer revenue since 2016… considerably more than any other country.
The French Football Factory
The CIES Football Observatory compiled the data for the past decade of transfer activity around the globe. And it was France that came out on top with that astronomical sum of £3.5 billion, which seems them stride £1.2 billion clear of their nearest rivals for the honour in Brazil.
Neymar, Kylian Mbappé & Randal Kolo Muani
The three biggest transfer fees in French football history were all paid by PSG, ironically, for Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Randal Kolo Muani. But in terms of generating revenue by selling players to overseas clubs, France is by far and away the best in the business.
Aurelien Tchouameni
Aurelien Tchouameni joined Real Madrid for £70 million in 2022, which is the biggest outgoing transfer from a French club to an international rival – remember, Mbappe’s move to Madrid, which would have broken all records, was as a free agent.
Nicolas Pépé, Victor Osimhen & Thomas Lemar
Other big deals include the signings of Nicolas Pepe, Victor Osimhen and Thomas Lemar to Arsenal, Napoli and Atletico Madrid respectively. But, in truth, it’s the sheer volume of transfers away from France season after season that have contributed to this particular standing. There are ‘selling clubs’ in football, i.e. those whose model revolves around developing young talents and then packing them off to pastures new for a handsome profit.
Players Moving Abroad
France has become a ‘selling country’, devoted to the same concept, and yet far from becoming a poor relation in world football, they boast the current European champions in PSG and an international team that is the envy of most. Rounding out the top three, in terms of the most revenue generated from transfer sales to overseas clubs since 2016, is Spain at a shade under £2 billion.
There is a growing trend for English players to move abroad, which for so long didn’t really happen. Harry Kane, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jude Bellingham, Marcus Rashford and Conor Gallagher – a decent five-a-side team – are just some of those that have upped sticks overseas.
In terms of transfer revenue generated from overseas outfits, English clubs rank sixth in this particular metric with a combined income of £1.4 billion; ahead of them is Portugal (£1.75 billion) and the Netherlands (£1.44 billion).
The Kids Are Alright
Interestingly, the data suggests that around 90% of all players trained in France and sold to overseas clubs during the past decade were aged 26 or younger. Brazil, Portugal and the Netherlands have even higher ratios than that, but they haven’t generated the extraordinary revenue that clubs selling young French players have.
Compare and contrast to the ages of players trained in England and then sold overseas: some 26% of the £1.4 billion banked was for those aged 27 or older… revealing just how keen Premier League clubs, for the most part, are to sell their assets as they reach a certain vintage.
And, of course, it shows how willing overseas clubs are to buy English players that are in their prime… or perhaps just coming out of it. If players trained in England use the Premier League as their footballing equivalent of a finishing school, France is very much the conveyor belt from which the raw materials are born.
The reasons for this are manifold, but evidently investment in youth academies – and allowing young stars to grow with exposure to first team football – is at the top of the list. For context, 30 players that featured at the World Cup in 2022 were born in Paris or just outside. Only eight from Greater London took to the pitch in Qatar.
A whole catalogue of players that were born in France, and/or trained as youngsters in the country, have since gone on to play for a different country. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez, Raphael Guerreiro, Gonzalo Higuain… all could have represented Les Bleus.
Youth Academies in France
It’s the rich cultural heritage that also sets France apart, with immigrants from many African nations welcome into the country with open arms – if talented youngsters move to France early enough, they can naturalise and embrace a French passport.
Kylian Mbappé was born in France to a Cameroonian father and an Algerian mother. Zinedine Zidane has Algerian roots, while N’Golo Kante was born in Mali. Karim Benzema, Patrick Vieira, Lillian Thuram, Marcel Desailly… each has African heritage, but has been openly welcomed as French.
Youth academies in France are so good at welcoming the wide array of nationalities and cultures that walk through their doors, creating a French identity no matter where they were born or hail from. But they have to be given chances to play in the first team in order to a) improve, but b) attract transfer interest from overseas clubs.
How England Differs
This pathway is ingrained in French football culture, but elsewhere – England and Italy spring to mind – there’s an emphasis on signing foreign players instead. The French Football Federation has mandated that all of its professional clubs must have a youth academy, whereas in England they are seen by some as an unwanted expense… for a time, Premier League side Brentford even closed down their academy altogether.
And yet, when you see the riches that the model has brought French football, you realise that having a thriving youth system is an absolute no-brainer.
