Nigerian football clubs secured a significant boost during the 2024 summer transfer window, earning a total of N15.4bn ($9.7m) from 196 international transfers, Bold Sports reports.
This was contained in the International Transfer Snapshot (mid-year 2024) released by FIFA on Tuesday, covering the period from June 1, 2024, to September 2, 2024.
This represented an average transfer fee of N92.36m ($58,083.83) per player who moved out of the country, with 29 of the transfers still pending.
According to FIFA, a transfer is considered completed if it has reached one of the four completed statuses in the FIFA Transfer Matching System (TMS). Pending transfers are transfers for which the ITC was requested by the player’s new association before the end of the reporting period, but the ITC has not yet been received and the player has not yet been registered by the new association.
For the pending transfers, their status in the TMS is one of “Awaiting ITC delivery”, “Awaiting ITC receipt”, “Awaiting response to rejection of ITC request”, “Awaiting confirmation of provisional registration”, “Awaiting registration confirmation”, “The ITC request has been rejected by the former association and the rejection has been disputed by the new association”, “Awaiting judgment” or “Awaiting notification of decision”.
A breakdown shows 68 of the deals are permanent moves, 100 out of contract while 28 players are out on loan.
The transfer figure marked a record high for Nigerian clubs, with a 248.92% increase from the previous year, where they earned only N4.42bn ($2.78m).
It also represented a 9.87% increase in the number of players sold, after 152 players left the shores of the country to continue their careers abroad last summer.
Bold Sports further gathered that the average age of players who got transferred abroad from Nigeria was 22.7 years.
While Nigerian clubs received N15.4bn ($9.7m) for players transferred out, none of the 52 players who got transferred into the country commanded any transfer fees, as they all joined the clubs in the country after being out of contract.
Nigeria exported the highest number of players to other countries among the African countries, with Ghana far behind with 86 players, while Ivory Coast was third with 54 players, Morocco fourth with 49 players, and Libya fifth with 47 players.
Cameroon, Senegal, DR Congo, Tunisia, and Tanzania complete the top 10 exporting nations with 47, 45, 44, 40, and 30 players moving to other countries, respectively.
Mali, with only 29 outgoing players, secured the highest transfer fee in Africa at $11.5m, ahead of Egypt in second, earning $10.9m from the transfer of 29 players, and Nigeria in third. Morocco earned $9.08m, while Senegal earned $5.83m from outgoing transfers.
Ghana, Algeria (19 players), South Africa (27 players), Tunisia, and Ivory Coast complete the top 10 earners, with $3.96m, $3.31m, $2.94m, $2.71m, and $1.99m, respectively.
South African clubs were the heaviest spenders on the continent, spending $6.64m to bring in 23 players, while Algeria spent $2.6m to bring in 55 players, Egypt $2.57m for seven players, and Libya $2.16m for 43 players.
Tanzanian clubs brought in 75 players—the highest on the continent—for $1.46m, while Tunisia spent $1.41m for 39 players, Morocco $730,000 for 54 players, Sudan $520,000 for 23 players, Rwanda $245,000 for 63 players and Zambia $42,000 for 24 players.
Worldwide, the English leagues had the highest number of players transferred in, with 526 players moving to England at $1.69bn, while 523 players were transferred out at $1.25bn.
A record 11,000 international transfers in men’s professional football occurred during the 2024 mid-year transfer window, marking a 4.9% increase compared to the same period last year. A total of $6.46bn was spent on international transfer fees in men’s professional football during the 2024 mid-year transfer window, the second highest ever.
