Explained | How European football clubs' transfer window works

The European transfer window is all set to take centre stagefor the next few weeks after the club season came to an end on Saturday, June 10 when Manchester City won the Champions League. The footballing world, which had seen the rise of the Blue Manchester Moon, will see the headlines drift towards the European transfer window with a host of big-name clubs ready to splash the cash on big-name players like Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, and others.

🚨 Kylian Mbappé has informed PSG of his decision: he’ll NOT trigger the option to extend current contract until 2025, it means that deal would expire next June 2024 — as L’Équipé called.

PSG position: NO plan to lose Kylian for free.

Sign new deal now or he could be sold. pic.twitter.com/fDpSKOmxsf — Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 12, 2023

When does the transfer window start?

The European transfer window, divided into two – summer and winter – will see clubs splash the cash on players from as early as June 14 in one of the big five European nations (England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) in 2023. The summer transfer window is the most decorated window where big-money deals are expected to get underway. While rumours swirl around for the majority of the year, a player can only play for a club of his choice in Europe only after the start of the window.

In 2023 the transfer window in England will open on Wednesday, June 14 while the rest of the big five nations will open their windows on July 1.

How does the transfer system work?

A player tied to a contract can be signed by any club once the window opens with the interested club paying the designated release clause part of the proposal. The player’s salary deal is another theory that is not part of the transfer fee or the release clause.

In 2022, Manchester City paid a whopping $63 million to sign Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund. While Haaland was still contracted with the German side, City paid the release clause (transfer fee) and got their target.

Any player contracted to a club cannot make the transfer to another club once the transfer deadline is met. This year, the deadline in England, France, Germany, and Spain is September 1, whileAugust 31 will see the Italian transfer window come to an end.

The winter transfer window works in the same manner and generally opens on January 1 and ends on the last day of the month. Again, no player contracted to any team can make the transfer to other clubsonce the deadline is met.

All the transfer deals work under FIFA’s guidelines with documentation and other paperwork to be completed in these prescribed manners.

How does the loan system work?

Another part of the transfer deal is players leaving on loan which sees a contracted player make the move to another club in the transfer window but not permanently. Like a new transfer deal, a loan player signs a contract that could run for a few weeks to a few months. In 2012 Thierry Henry moved to Arsenal from New York Red Bulls on a month’s loan while Dejan Kulusevski is on an 18-month loan deal from Juventus to Tottenham after switching clubs in January 2022.

The parent club of the player receives a compensation fee for the transfer which sees the player move in another direction. High-profile players to have switched clubs on loan include David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović to AC Milan in the 2009-10 season.

How is the transfer fee calculated?

The transfer fee of a player is calculated taking into account various factors like release clause, time left for the contract to expire, agent fees, player signing-on fees, and many others. A player who has big time remaining on his contract will attract a big transfer fee as they are not entitled to sell the player until he requests a transfer or his deal expires. Harry Kane in 2021 was valued at more than $150 million as he had three years remaining on his contract while his valuation was less than $100 million in 2023, despite him performing even better than the previous years.

A player could be signed for free without paying a release clause to the club after his contract expires, therefore the transfer fee is lower for a player with a few months remaining on the expiry of his contract.

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Can players move after the end of transfer window?

The idea of the transfer window is to limit the movement of players in the mid-season from one club to another. However, players can still make their transfers even if the window is closed in exceptional cases as a free agent and no release fee is paid to any club. If a player is not contracted to any club and is a free agent, he can move to a club before the opening of the transfer window. Paul Scholes in 2012 returned to Manchester United to play for a season as he was not registered with any other club at the time of signing.

In another situation, if a player’s contract is terminated by the club, he then becomes a free agent and could be signed by another club without waiting for the transfer window to open. Cristiano Ronaldo is the biggest example of the case, having signed for Al-Nassr after his Manchester United contract was terminated in November 2022.

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