A record-breaking spending spree by English soccer clubs reached its climax late Tuesday when Manchester City signed midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea for 125 million pounds ($169 million), making the Argentina star one of the most expensive players in history.
The deal for Fernandez was the biggest yet of a summer when the Premier League's super-rich teams have splashed out around $4.6 billion pounds combined on new players — a record for a single
transfer window — thanks to the popular competition's huge domestic and international broadcasting deals, which give its clubs unrivaled spending power.
City’s spending alone on new players tops $600 million during this window, according to figures stated by soccer industry website Transfermarkt, with Senegal winger Iliman Ndiaye joining from Everton before Tuesday's deadline for an initial $81 million.
Chelsea and Tottenham are other top spenders in England this summer, with an outlay of more than $400 million each on new players, and they were still busy in the market on Tuesday.
Fernandez, who was sent off against Spain in the World Cup final in July, became the latest big-money signing as part of City's $440-million midfield rebuild also including the arrivals of Elliot Anderson ($155 million) and Ayyoub Bouaddi ($117 million).
The fee for Fernandez is the same as Liverpool paid last year for Alexander Isak, which has stood as the British-record transfer.
“He is a complete midfielder: technically gifted, hardworking, tenacious and a goalscorer," City director football Hugo Viana said.
Isak and Fernandez are tied in fourth place in the all-time list of most expensive soccer players, after Neymar (Barcelona to PSG for 222 million euros), Kylian Mbappé (Monaco to PSG for 180 million euros) and Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona for 148 million euros), according to Transfermarkt.
Abu Dhabi-controlled City has recouped almost $400 million in sales already this window — among the departures has been Spain's World Cup-winning captain Rodri and Bernardo Silva — and let Jack Grealish leave on another season-long loan to Everton on Tuesday.
The previous highest spend by Premier League teams in one window was 3.14 billion pounds ($4.25 billion) in 2025 and that was comfortably surpassed, with some last-minute deals still to go through as the window closes.
One of them could see U.S. striker Folarin Balogun move to Everton from Monaco, although British broadcaster Sky Sports reported there were some last-minute hitches in the possible deal.
It was deadline day for top-flight clubs in Spain, Italy, Germany and France, too. Their combined spending was $3.8 billion — much less than that of the Premier League's 20 teams.
It has been a summer of heavy change at Aston Villa, with a number of star players — Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa and Emi Martinez, among them — leaving and a slew of new arrivals.
Its business continued Tuesday with the signing of Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris Saint-Germain.
The two-time Champions League-winning winger joins a new-look Villa attack, which has also seen the additions of Nicolas Jackson and Alejandro Garnacho.
Villa, which qualified for the Champions League last season, has lost its opening two league games this campaign.
Liverpool signed 18-year-old goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans from Belgian team Genk in a deal that reportedly could be worth up to 30 million pounds ($35 million). Brughmans has gone back to Genk on loan for the rest of the season.
Newcastle signed Belgium forward Matias Fernandez-Pardo from Lille for a reported 51 million pounds ($59 million) and sent Nick Woltemade on loan to Juventus, with the Germany striker having spent just one season in the Premier League after a 69 million pounds ($93 million) move.
Tottenham signed two players from Chelsea — Ukraine winger Mykhailo Mudryk on a season-long loan, a month after he was cleared to play again following a doping case, and defender Tosin Adarabioyo on a permanent deal.
Chelsea responded to its imminent sale of Fernandez by attempting to sign Senegal midfielder Lamine Camara from Monaco, but Sky Sports reported that deal will not go through.
Gabriel Jesus completed a move from Arsenal to Barcelona on a three-year deal.
The Brazil striker endured an injury-disrupted time at Arsenal, but was part of last season's title-winning team.
He is the latest forward to leave the Emirates Stadium during this window, following Leandro Trossard's move to Besiktas and teenager Ethan Nwaneri joining Borussia Dortmund on loan. Gabriel Martinelli is also expected to depart to Saudi Arabia.
Canada striker Jonathan David joined Atletico Madrid on loan from Juventus.
As well as signing Woltemade, Juventus brought in midfielder Pape Matar Sarr on loan from Tottenham.
Beto moved to Fiorentina from Everton as the replacement for Moise Kean, who joined Como — the team coached by Cesc Fabregas and in the Champions League this season — on loan.
Robinho Junior, the 18-year-old son of the former Brazil player Robinho, signed with Genoa and English forward Jonathan Rowe was loaned from Bologna to Atalanta.
Bayer Leverkusen made the biggest splash in Germany on Tuesday by announcing the signing of Ivory Coast right back Guéla Doué – the older brother of France star Désiré Doué – and the return of Moussa Diaby three years after he left for Aston Villa.
Media reports said Leverkusen was paying an initial 30 million euros ($35 million) to Strasbourg for Doué that could rise to a club-record 36 million ($42 million). It is paying another reported 27 million euros ($31 million) to Al-Ittihad for French winger Diaby.
Diaby scored 49 goals in 172 competitive games for Leverkusen between 2019-23 before he moved to Aston Villa. He spent just one year in England before his move in 2024 to Al-Ittihad, where he won the Saudi title along with Karim Benzema in 2024-25.
Spanish youngster Marc Guiu left Chelsea for Leipzig for a reported fee of up to 17 million euros ($19.7 million).
Lille signed Maurits Kjaergaard as a replacement for Bouaddi.
The 23-year-old Dane joined from Salzburg on a five-year-old deal. A versatile box-to-box midfielder, Kjaergaard brings solid experience, having already featured in five European campaigns.
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James Ellingworth from Dusseldorf, Ciarán Fahey from Berlin and Samuel Petrequin from Paris contributed to this report.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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See AP’s full soccer coverage here
