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Round up of the January Transfer Window
The Winter transfer window finally slammed shut yesterday, and Chelsea’s team of accountants finally breathed a sigh of relief. The London side were by far the most active team in the window, spending a January record £320m on players to take their season tally to £580m. While Cristiano Ronaldo was the biggest name to move in this window as the Free Agent went to Al Nassr, Enzo Fernández set the British record with his move to Chelsea on deadline day following his standout performance at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Here’s a breakdown of the top moves in January, but first, a look at Nigerians who made the news.
Nigerians on the Move
In a move that many feel should have happened earlier, Paul Onuachu moved from Genk to the Premier League’s 20th place team, Southampton. The 28-year-old Nigerian won the the Belgian Golden Boot two seasons ago, scoring 33 league goals – the highest tally since the 1979-80 season – and had already notched up 16 goals in 18 games this season. Onuachu will be linking up with fellow Nigerian international, Joe Aribo at St. Mary’s for a reported €18m fee + €3m in add-ons. Terem Moffi was also on the move. The Super Eagle who has scored 12 Ligue 1 goals this season – just 1 behind Kylian Mbappé – joined OGC Nice on loan from Lorient with an obligation to buy for around €30m.
In a heartwarming story of the day, 18-year-old Ebenezer Akinsanmiro joined Serie A giants, Inter from Nigerian side, Remo Stars for an undisclosed fee. Akinsanmiro was part of the team that helped Remo Stars gain promotion to the NPFL two seasons ago and featured for the Ogun State side last season. Still at Inter, a certain 18-year-old Kevin Maussi Martins made the move to Monza following Akinsanmiro’s arrival. While Kevin Martins’ name doesn’t exactly ring a bell – in fact, he currently represents Italy’s youth teams and not Nigeria’s – he does have a strong link to this country; he’s the son of the legendary Obafemi Martins.
Premier League Transfers
EPL teams spent €830m in this window, with their season tally passing the €3bn mark – a record high. In comparison, the Serie A, the 2nd biggest spenders over the last two windows (€797m) didn’t spend as much as English teams did in January alone. To no one’s surprise, 5 of the top 6 most expensive transfers for this window were made by Todd Boehly and Chelsea, with the exception on that list going to Newcastle and their €45.6m fee paid to Everton for Anthony Gordon.
Chelsea signed Malo Gusto from Lyon (€30m), Noni Madueke from PSV (€35m), Benoît Badiashile from Monaco (€38m), Mykhaylo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk (€100m including add-ons) and the new British record holder Enzo Fernández (€121m) from Benfica to make up the England’s Top 6 most expensive transfers list for January. They also added Joao Felix on loan (Atlético), Andrey Santos (Vasco de Gama) and David Fofana (Molde).
Manchester United went the loan route and made two additions; Netherlands’ Wout Weghorst as a replacement for the departed Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcel Sabitzer from Bayern Munich as a replacement for Christian Eriksen who will be sidelined till late April. In the blue half of Manchester, things were relatively quiet but Man City did add Argentine midfielder, Máximo Perrone from Vélez Sarsfield for €11m.
League leaders, Arsenal missed out on their preferred targets Mykhaylo Mudryk and Moisés Caicedo, but they did land their Plan Bs; Leandro Trossard and Champions League & EURO winner, Jorginho from Chelsea for a combined €38m. Neighbors, Tottenham, loaned in highly rated Right-Fullback Pedro Porro from Sporting CP on deadline day after a tricky few days of negotiations. The loan comes with an obligation to buy for an estimated €45m fee, with many believing this might be one of the signings of the window.
Nottingham Forest were busy on deadline day – having signed Palmeiras’ Danilo for €20m earlier in the window – as they landed LaLiga Champion, Felipe from Atlético Madrid, 3-time Champions League winner, Keylor Navas from PSG and Jonjo Shelvy from Newcastle. Bournemouth splashed the cash with Illya Zabarnyi, Dango Ouattara, Antoine Semenyo and Hamed Traore (loan) joining for a combined €56m fee while Fulham signed Saša Lukić from Torino & loaned in Arsenal’s Cédric Soares who had been starved of game time by the league leaders.
To round up the Premier League, Leeds United grabbed Georginio Rutter from TSG Hoffenheim for €28m and loaned in USMNT’s Weston McKennie from Juventus and Southampton added €25m winger Kamaldeen Sulemana from Rennes to go with Paul Onuachu.
LaLiga Transfers
There was little money spent in Spain, just like most leagues outside England, but there was, however, some smart business being done. Atlético signed Memphis Depay from Barcelona as well as Right-Back, Matt Doherty, who had terminated his contract with Spurs.
Real Betis signed Abner, the Left-Back from Brazil’s Athletico-PR for an estimated €7m fee before landing Leicester City’s Ayoze Pérez on loan.
There was little to no movement at the very top of the table with Real Madrid opting to sit this window out while Barcelona looked set to sign Right-Back, Julián Araujo from LA Galaxy but, with the paper works submitted after the deadline, this deal looks like it might have to wait till the summer to be completed.
Serie A Transfers
There was very little money spent in Italy’s top division as well – €30m to be precise. Fiorentina spent the highest fee with €8.5m paid to Hellas Verona for Antonin Barak while Spezia brought in center-back, Przemyslaw Wisniewski from Venezia for €4m.
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Diego Llorente’s loan move to AS Roma is also noteworthy. The Spanish defender joins José Mourinho in the country’s capital after seeing his minutes significantly reduced at Leeds United under Jesse Marsch. Llorente appeared in just eight EPL matches (649 minutes) after starting 28 matches (2,340 minutes) just a year ago. With Chris Smalling’s future at Roma still uncertain, Llorente could make this move permanent if he impresses over the next 5 months.
Ligue 1 Transfers
The Ligue 1 was second on the list of spenders this window, with €125m splashed on players. Surprisingly, PSG didn’t account for a penny in that figure, with no player going to the league holders. Hakim Ziyech was set to join them on loan on deadline day but, according to multiple reports, Chelsea sent in the wrong documents on three occasions – which isn’t hard to imagine seeing as they had their hands full this past January. This led to the transfer missing the deadline and, although PSG are planning to appeal, it looks like the Moroccan won’t be reuniting with his teammate, Achraf Hakimi.
Other Ligue 1 sides strengthened their sides as PSG remained quiet; OGC Nice brought in Youssouf Ndayishimiye and Terem Moffi, Olympique Lyon signed attackers Amin Sarr and Jeffinho for a combined €21m, FC Lorient landed Bamba Dieng and Joel Mugisha Mvuka for €13m while Rennes loaned in Cameroon international, Karl Toko Ekambi from Lyon. Marseille, meanwhile, were the biggest spenders in France with Azzedine Ounahi (€8m) and highly sort-after striker, Vitinha (€30m) joining from Angers SCO and SC Braga, respectively. Marseille are 3rd in Ligue 1 – 2pts behind 2nd place Lens – and aim to push for Champions League qualification in the second half of the season, with automatic passage given to only the top two teams.
Bundesliga Transfers
The Bundesliga was the 3rd highest spending league in the winter window (an estimate of €69m), though it pales in comparison to the Premier League’s reported €830m. Second place Union Berlin brought in some reinforcements ahead of the second half of the season. Right Back, Josip Juranovic joined from Celtic for €8.55m while Ferencváros’ Central Midfielder, Aïssa Laïdouni joined for €4m. However, it was the collapse of a move for Isco that made headlines. The 5-time Champions League winner had terminated his contract with Sevilla back in December and had been in search for a new club. An agreement had been reached with Union Berlin and the Spanish midfielder had passed his medicals. Things then took a strange turn when the German club announced the deal had collapsed, hinting that Isco’s demands differed from what had been verbally agreed on prior to the medicals.
League leaders, Bayern Munich, made two notable additions to their team as they aim to win their record-extending 11th Bundesliga title in a row. Yann Sommer was brought in from Gladbach for €8m to replace the injured Manuel Neuer, but the main signing of the season – and arguably the most surprising of the winter window – was the move for Manchester City’s João Cancelo. The Portuguese fullback had been out of favor with Pep Guardiola since the return of the league in late December, but the relationship broke down beyond repair following a reported training ground bust-up ahead of the FA Cup clash with Arsenal. João Cancelo joins the 32-time German Champions on a loan deal with an option to make the move permanent for €61m.
Others
In other leagues, Right Back, Héctor Bellerín joined Sporting CP on a permanent deal, presumably as a replacement for the departed Pedro Porro while PSV loaned in both Thorgan Hazard and Patrick van Aanholt from Dortmund and Galatasaray, respectively.
Ajax also signed Gerónimo Rulli from Villarreal for €8m, with the Argentine Goalkeeper singing a 3.5 year contract and Sofiane Boufal made a €6m move from Angers SCO to Qatari side Al-Rayyan SC.
