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Five biggest bargains of the summer transfer window
Analysis
In a summer of big spending, some clubs still prefer to chase bargains.
With well over $5 billion spent on transfers across just Europe's top five leagues (with $3.5 billion coming from the Premier League alone) a lot of money has changed hands this summer.
We've seen multiple signings of €100 million ($116m) or more, but there have also been some truly inspired bits of business done across the top five leagues. True bargains as clubs extracted incredible value for money.
But who were the best value for money signings? FootballTransfers has the answer. So here they are; excluding loans, the five best bargains of the summer transfer window!
Gianluigi Donnarumma
To: Man City
For: $35 million
It's rare that elite goalkeepers enter the transfer market, and when they do it's for exorbitant amounts of money because, well, elite goalkeepers are rare and make a massive difference to your chances of success!
Gianluigi Donnarumma finding his form in the second-half of 2024/25 is one of the three main reasons (along with Dembélé's goalscoring hot streak and the arrival of Kvicha Kvaratskhelia) that PSG won the Treble. He was a mountainous figure as the Champions League knockout stages, repeatedly saving his side from danger.
So, when PSG decided to sell him and switch to Lucas Chevalier, eyebrows were raised!
Nevertheless, that meant someone was going to get one of the best goalkeepers in the world at a cut price rate. That someone ended up being Man City, and the fee was a staggeringly low $35 million.
Alright, Donnarumma is surely earning a significant amount of money in wages, and he doesn't really fit Pep Guardiola's style of play, but his big game shot-stopping ability could become a massively decisive factor for a Man City side that keeps on getting blitzed on the break by basically everyone.
Joan Garcia
To: Barcelona
For: $29 million
No one knows the value of a great goalkeeper more than Barcelona, who bar one season in 2022/23, haven't had one since 2019. Marc-Andre Ter Stegen has been at the club the whole time but injuries and poor form have rendered him a husk of his former self.
Last season he was injured and Barcelona somehow won La Liga by bring Wojciech Szczesny out of retirement to keep goal. He wasn't great but he was enough. Meanwhile the best goalkeeper in La Liga was playing across town for Espanyol.
Joan Garcia is an athletic dynamo in goal. Possessing the sharp reflexes and devastating instincts to make precise interventions and saves to rescue his team. And because of his low, low release clause even cash-strapped Barcelona had the FFP headroom to sign him.
So Barcelona fix their goalkeeping position for a decade despite spending next to nothing. Given how strong the rest of the team is this might honestly be the bargain of the summer when it comes to creating a contender.
Antony
To: Real Betis
For: $29 million
A lot has been made of how bad Antony was at Man Utd, and it's true that he was absolutely terrible, but looking at the path of destruction that Erik ten Hag has wrought through football both at United and since, and look at how good Antony was on loan at Betis in the second-half of last season (genuinely one of the best players in La Liga) maybe he wasn't the problem? After all, United signed him for a reason.
Anyway, it was clear Betis wanted him back permanently and it was also clear he only wanted to go to Betis. And United, rather than being smart and taking him on pre-season tour with them and hoping he could play well enough to convince someone else to try and bid, decided to exile him from their first-team squad.
STATS
Antony
M, AM (R)
Real Betis
Antony
M, AM (R)
Real Betis
This made it clear Antony was for sale, which meant that Real Betis had no need to push the issue to sign the Brazilian. They just had to wait for Man Utd to get desperate, which they did in the closing days of the window, accepting a miniscule $29 million bid for a player that had cost them $105 million just two years previously.
While Antony probably isn't a $105 million player, he's damn sure better than a $29 million player. Betis played Man Utd like a fiddle and got themselves a bargain. Nice.
Jonathan Burkardt
To: Eintracht Frankfurt
For: $24.5 million
Eintracht Frankfurt treat other big clubs like an ATM. Whenever they need a hefty dose of cash, blammo, they sell a striker for a massive fee. Randal Kolo Muani, Omar Marmoush, even Luka Jovic really. Then Hugo Ekitike this summer too.
The trick, really, is to see how Frankfurt are interested in and go for them. So anyone who was paying attention would have made a move for Jonathan Burkardt. The German striker was heading for the top three years ago but an ACL injury disrupted his rise.
STATS
Jonathan Burkardt
F (C)
E. Frankfurt
Jonathan Burkardt
F (C)
E. Frankfurt
Burkardt's back on track now though, scoring 18 times in the Bundesliga last season. For reference, that's more than Nick Woltemade ($99 million), Benjamin Sesko ($87 million) and Hugo Ekitike ($111 million). All of whom joined Premier League clubs this summer.
Frankfurt, meanwhile, picked up Burkardt for just $24 million. An extraordinary bargain based off his production alone.
And given how their system is set-up to help strikers shine (Omar Marmoush, anyone?) you just know that Burkardt is going to crush it for Frankfurt and probably earn them another massive payday in a season or two, making the deal even better.
Omar Alderete
To: Sunderland
For: €13.5 million
There were lots of great bargains found this summer, but Omar Alderete has to be included in any top five. If for no other reason than his former club president literally lamented in public that he had to sell him for next to nothing.
Getafe President Angel Torres said: "I sold one of the best centre-backs in the league for peanuts so I could have 16 or 17 players registered."
Peanuts.
And he's not wrong, either.
Getafe's powerful defensive style of football was made possible in part by Alderete's dominant displays at the back. Now he's playing for Sunderland, arriving for a price so cheap it feels like something from 2005 not 2025.
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