Where do Man Utd rank? The most money clubs have spent on forward players in one season

Top 10 ranked 

Manchester United stole much of the attention surrounding the summer transfer window this week, when the Old Trafford club won the race to sign RB Leipzig forward Benjamin Sesko. Despite serious interest from Chelsea and Arsenal earlier in the window and Newcastle’s best attempts to convince him to move to St James’ Park, the Slovenian talisman has opted for a move to the Red Devils. And he isn’t the only attacking player that has made a big-money move to Man Utd this summer.

Sesko makes the move to Ruben Amorim’s team as one of three new forward players. Prior to Sesko’s €76.5 million (plus €8.5m in add-ons) deal being concluded, Man Utd had also signed two other players to bolster their attacking line up: Bryan Mbeumo made the move from Brentford for €75m, while Matheus Cunha arrived from Wolves for an almost identical fee of €74.2m. In total, that means that the Old Trafford club have spent an incredible sum of €226m on forward players this season. And, to no great surprise, there are very few clubs that can rival that level of spending in European football.

As we can see in the table above, Man Utd’s summer spending is the third highest amount of money spent on transfer fees by a club in a single season on attacking talents. When we consider “forwards” to be centre forwards, second strikers and wingers, it suggests that only two clubs have spent more in a single season. In second place is Real Madrid, who spent €231m signing Eden Hazard, Luka Jović, Rodrygo and Alberto Soro in the 2019/20 season. But the club that spent the most on forward players in a single season was none other than Paris Saint-Germain, who amassed an incredible array of attacking talents in the 2023/24 season, buying Randal Kolo Muani, Gonçalo Ramos, Ousmane Dembélé, Bradley Barcola, Hugo Ekitiké and Kang-in Lee for a total of €306m.

PSG also have a second entry on the top 10 list, having spent €180m on a single attacking player by the name of Kylian Mbappé in the 2018/19 season. Intriguingly, Man Utd are joined on the top 10 list by no less than three entries from Chelsea. The Stamford Bridge club sit fourth for their €196m spent in the 2022/23 season and seventh for the €173m spent in the 2020/21 season. But, curiously, could still move up the rankings if they continue to sign more attacking players this summer. In this current window, the Stamford Bridge club have spent €189m signing Estêvão, Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens and João Pedro for €189m. If they were to spend another €43m on another forward player, they would move into second place this season.