Premier League: Chelsea madness knows no bounds – 120m transfer!

Strange but true …

Chelsea signed eight new stars for a total of around 330 (!) million euros in this winter transfer window alone. The last mega deal: Enzo Fernandez (22) joins London from Benfica for €121m.

Chelsea and Benfica announced the transfer on Wednesday night. The transfer fee is by far the highest that was generally paid this winter. It’s the end of a spectacular transfer phase for the club.

The second most expensive transfer of January also belongs to Chelsea. Mykhailo Mudryk (22) came to Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk for 70 million euros (plus up to 30 million euros in bonus payments). Club owner Todd Boehly (49) has apparently succumbed to a spending spree given the precarious table situation (tenth place, ten points behind a Champions League spot).

Three other new stars can also be found in the top 10 most expensive winter signings worldwide: Benoît Badiashile (21) came from Monaco for 38 million euros, Noni Madueke (20) for 35 million euros from PSV Eindhoven and Malo Gusto (19) for €30m from Olympique Lyon.

Chelsea also signed Andrey Santos (€18.12.5m, Vasco da Gama), David Fofana (€20.12m, Molde FK) and João Félix (€23.11m on loan for a half a year, Atlético Madrid). In return, only Jorginho left the club (€31.11 million, Arsenal).

Chelsea also shopped diligently last summer. Chelsea have paid a whopping €612m for players this season – but only made just under €68m. That makes a transfer deficit of an incredible 544 million euros, more than half a billion.

In order to circumvent Uefa’s financial fair play, Chelsea uses special tricks. Almost all newcomers have very long contract terms. Among others, Mudryk and Fernández signed until 2031, the other newcomers are also under contract until 2028, 2029 or 2030. Actually, the contracts may only run for five years due to a Fifa requirement, but the contracts may be longer if national law allows it. That is the case in England.

The highlight of the long contract terms: the transfer fee is written off over the entire contract term. This means that financial fair play will be significantly less affected this season than if the contract – as usual – only ran for three to five years. In this way, Chelsea can spend more than half a billion euros without violating financial fair play. Uefa doesn’t want to put up with that in the future (read more HERE).

For the time being, the Chelsea madness may come to an end after all – but probably only until the next transfer summer…