Diarra to Sunderland tops list of promoted Premier League clubs’ biggest-ever signings
Sunderland have paid a club-record fee for Strasbourg and Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra.
They’re not messing around after returning to the Premier League, having beaten fellow promoted club Leeds United to the youngster’s signature.
Not only is this be a record deal for the Black Cats, it’s also the most expensive signing ever made by a newly-promoted Premier League club. Here is the current top 10…
=10) Alfie Mawson – £20m (Fulham, 2018)
We’ll fly through the first four. Fulham feature a lot, starting with Mawson.
=10) Joao Palhinha – £20m (Fulham, 2022)
An incredible signing made by Fulham ahead of their return in 2022/23, Palhinha spent two seasons at Craven Cottage before earning a well-deserved move to Bayern Munich.
=10) Omari Hutchinson – £20m (Ipswich, 2024)
Ipswich tried to avoid relegation after a sensational promotion by splashing the cash on players like Liam Delap and Hutchinson. The former is gone after they went down, and we’re unsure if the latter will follow suit.
=10) Taylor Harwood-Bellis – £20m (Southampton, 2024)
Southampton included an obligation to buy Harwood-Bellis if they got promoted, and that’s exactly what happened.
9) Tyrone Mings – £20m plus £5m in add-ons (Aston Villa, 2019)
The add-ons separate Mings from the four in joint-ninth.
This was the second time he joined a newly-promoted team after signing for Bournemouth for £8m in 2015. He spent the second half of 2018/19 on loan at Villa Park, helping them go up via the Championship play-offs.
7=) Aleksandar Mitrovic – £22m (Fulham, 2018)
Another successful signing. Mitrovic initially joined Fulham on loan from Newcastle in January 2018, helping them get promoted with 12 goals in 17 Championship games, then scored 11 in 37 as the Londoners came straight back down.
A record-breaking 2021/22 campaign saw Mitrovic score 43 in 44 in the second tier and 14 goals in 24 Premier League matches before moving to Saudi Arabia.
7=) Wesley – £22m (Aston Villa, 2019)
Wesley has scored an impressive 21 goals in 34 matches in the Turkish second division for Fatih Karagumruk. He’ll soon be a free agent. Oh, and he cost Villa £22m when they got promoted six years ago.
6) Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa – £22.3m (Fulham, 2018)
Anguissa is now a two-time Serie A winner with Napoli. He always looked a decent player for Fulham but never quite blossomed in England into the midfielder he’s since become.
4=) Oliver Skipp – £25m (Leicester, 2024)
What an incredibly bold decision it was to break the bank for Skipp, who left Tottenham for Leicester last summer.
The 24-year-old made 24 appearances in the Premier League last season, scoring zero goals, providing zero assists and receiving eight yellow cards.
4=) Jean Michael Seri – £25m (Fulham, 2018)
Seri looked like a top player in France and was anything but for Fulham in the Premier League.
3) Morgan Gibbs-White – £25m plus £17m in add-ons (Nottingham Forest, 2022)
It’s unknown how much of Gibbs-White’s add-ons have been paid to Wolves, and it probably is enough to make this the biggest signing by a newly-promoted club overall. A mere extra £2m would put this deal joint top; £5.4m would mean it surpasses Diarra’s move to Sunderland.
Gibbs-White has been an incredible addition to Forest and helped them qualify for the Europa Conference League with a seventh-place finish in 2024/25.
2) Rodrigo – £27m (Leeds, 2020)
The record signing by a promoted club – but not for long. Rodrigo’s arrival was a statement of intent, but he never really got going in Our League. The Spaniard scored 28 goals in 97 matches for Leeds and now plays for Al-Gharafa in Qatar.
1) Habib Diarra – £27m plus £3m in add-ons (Sunderland, 2025)
Sunderland have paid and received a club-record fee this summer, selling Jobe Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund and using that cash to bring in Leeds target Diarra.
READ MORE: Leeds given £254.5m challenge by most expensive XI signed by promoted clubs