The 20 biggest transfers in the world in the 2024 January transfer window
We kept expecting this list to get better and it never did. Only three Premier League signings made the cut for the top 20 January 2024 transfers.
1) Vitor Roque (Athletico Paranaense to Barcelona) – £25.6m plus £26.4m in add-ons
The 18-year-old – Roque Junior to his friends – was giddily snapped up by Barcelona in July on a seven-year contract containing a €500m release clause. Some economic levers have been pulled to get the Brazilian forward in earlier than initially planned amid a mild panic over their flagging season.
2) Sacha Boey (Galatasaray to Bayern Munich) – £25.6m plus £4.3m in add-ons
Crystal Palace were sniffing around for a while but Bayern Munich, sinking somewhat in the Bundesliga, have clung to a mid-season Boey for dear life after realising Kieran Trippier isn’t for turning.
3) Radu Dragusin (Genoa to Tottenham Hotspur) – £21.5m plus £4.3m in add-ons
Tottenham Hotspur > Bayern Munich… apparently. Ange Postecoglou has got his top defensive target after a pretty enjoyable early-window transfer saga. Following Timo Werner, Dragusin’s arrival adds to a strong start to January for the Premier League side and his comedy agent is just one of five reasons why we love this transfer.
4) Eljif Elmas (Napoli to Leipzig) – £20.8m
With a Scudetto and Coppa Italia to show for four-and-a-half seasons of consistent excellence in Italy, Elmas has been drafted in to help replace Leipzig stalwart Emil Forsberg in a move the North Macedonia international has described as “the stuff of dreams”.
5) Renan Lodi (Marseille to Al Hilal) – £19.8m
Lodi is now on his fourth club in two seasons as the former Atletico Madrid left-back (who spent last season on loan at Nottingham Forest) has joined the Saudi Arabian club just a few months after becoming a Marseille player.
6) Adam Wharton (Blackburn to Crystal Palace) – £18m plus £4.2m in addd-ons
The England youth international explicitly mentioned the development of Championship gems such as Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise in his justification behind joining a Palace side sure to change managers this summer.
7) Lucas Beraldo (Sao Paulo to Paris Saint-Germain) – £17.4m
The shift in project focus from an obsession with global superstars to building around youthful brilliance has thus far been overseen successfully by Luis Enrique, with centre-half Beraldo the next piece in a puzzle they still desperately hope Kylian Mbappe will ultimately help solve.
8) Gabriel Moscardo (Corinthians to Paris Saint-Germain) – £17m
See above. An 18-year-old defensive midfielder with 20-odd senior appearances under his belt, Moscardo will spend the next six months in Brazil.
9) Cyril Ngonge (Hellas Verona to Napoli) – £15.5m
Son of former Watford man Michel Ngonge, Cyril has swapped a relegation battle for a fight for European places with Napoli after a year in Verona that featured 11 goals in 36 games.
10) Marcos Leonardo (Santos to Benfica) – £15.4m
Without quite producing Neymar numbers, Marcos Leonardo nevertheless underlined his prodigious excellence over four years in Santos to catch the eye of teams across Europe. And the expert sellers of Benfica will probably move him on for ten times their initial outlay soon enough.
11) Arthur Vermeeren (Royal Antwerp to Atletico Madrid) – £15.3m plus £4.3m in add-ons
Many a superclub was lurking in the background but teenaged midfielder Arthur Vermeeren was too desperate to test the fortitude of his cojones under Diego Simeone in Spain.
12) Malick Fofana (Gent to Lyon) – £14.6m
The sixth-most expensive transfer in the 2024 January window is around the fourth biggest transfer of a Fofana ever, behind two separate Wesleys and a Seko but ahead of David Datro.
13) Luiz Henrique (Real Betis to Botafogo) – £13.7m
The Brazilian club have absolutely smashed their transfer record to bring the winger back to Brazil after 18 months in Spain.
14) Azor Matusiwa (Stade Reims to Rennes) – £13.3m
Dutch defensive midfielder who has gone to Rennes as a replacement for Nemanja Matic.
15) Kevin (Palmeiras to Shakhtar Donetsk) – £12.9m
Somehow the second Kevin in the Ukrainian club’s squad, not to be confused with the Venezuelan teenager who goes by the surname Kelsy.
16) Artur (Palmeiras to Zenit St Petersburg) – £12.8m
Zenit’s Brazilian contingent has been further reinforced since the summer sale of Malcom to Saudi, with Artur and his modest scoring record joining former Red Bull Bragantino teammate Claudinho in Russia.
17) Claudio Echeverri (River Plate to Manchester City) – £12.5m plus add-ons
Signed in January 2023 but won’t play for City until January 2024. Following Julian Alvarez is a great move.
18) Nicolas de la Cruz (River Plate to Flamengo) – £12.5m
One of Marcelo Bielsa’s favourites in the Uruguay camp, midfielder De la Cruz has moved from Argentina to Brazil. It turns out you can’t take the boy out of South America.
19) Manfred Ugalde (Twente FC to Spartak Moscow) – £11.1m
Costa Rican striker on the move after spending two-and-a-half seasons in the Eredivisie. No. Us neither.
20) Gift Orban (Gent to Lyon) – £11m
£11m for a striker with 51 goals in 76 senior appearances sounds like a bargain. Chelsea will sign him for £100m in a year or two.
January transfer window winners and losers: Levy and Man City praised as Forest, West Ham struggle
