The list of the top 10 most expensive transfers of all time looks a little different now.
Neymar is still in first place and Kylian Mbappe second.
But there is a new order below them and, some would say, it is a sign of the changing face of modern football on the pitch. Others will argue it is more of a reflection of Chelsea’s financial muscle off the field and a nine-figure deal around the turn of the year that distorted the transfer market.
Either way, there is no question that the N0 6 position is in vogue right now and valued — literally — like never before. Three players have been transferred for more than £100million ($127.1m) in 2023 and all of them are deep-lying midfielders.
Enzo Fernandez was the first, joining Chelsea from Benfica for £106.8million on deadline day in February on the back of winning the World Cup with Argentina. Declan Rice moved from West Ham to Arsenal for £100m last month, and Moises Caicedo signed for Chelsea on Monday for £115m.
The fees are astonishing. In the case of Fernandez and Caicedo, both are now in the top six transfers in the history of the game. As for Rice, he is the ninth-most expensive player of all time — remarkable given that he had entered the final 12 months of his contract with West Ham when Arsenal signed him and therefore could have moved for nothing in 2024.
Intriguingly, No 8s — the goalscoring and traditionally more creative midfielders who tended to command the biggest fees in the past — are moving for about half as much.
Newcastle paid AC Milan £60.5m for Sandro Tonali this summer. Mason Mount cost Manchester United an initial £55m. James Maddison, who scored and assisted 52 Premier League goals across the previous three seasons, joined Tottenham Hotspur for £40m, and Alexis Mac Allister moved to Liverpool for £45m rising to £55m (due in part to a clause in the contract renewal he signed in October).
Even Jude Bellingham, who switched from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid for £88.5m in June, was was significantly cheaper than Fernandez, Caicedo and Rice.
So what is behind the rise of the No 6? Is this just a phase that will come and go? Could the No 6 skill set be more central to the way that football is played now compared to any other position on the pitch? Or are Chelsea responsible for inflating prices?
To answer those questions and more, The Athletic spoke to a Premier League sporting director, one of the game’s leading agents, a scout for one of the top clubs in Europe, a former England international midfielder and television pundit, and a data scientist who specialises in player recruitment and valuations.
In the 2022 World Cup final, when Argentina beat France on penalties, one player had more touches, registered more successful passes and made more tackles than anyone else: his name was Enzo Fernandez.
Aged 21 at the time, the Argentina international was one of the stars of Qatar and Chelsea were hell-bent on signing him. Their decision to trigger Fernandez’s release clause at Benfica, and pay £106.8m (€120m) for a player who had made only 70 career appearances and cost as little as €10m five months earlier, raised eyebrows across the world of football.
It also raised the valuation of other No 6s and that ripple effect continues to be felt in the Premier League (the £58m that Southampton demanded Chelsea pay for 19-year-old Romeo Lavia this week serves as another example) and beyond.
“The numbers are pretty wild for that type of player,” Jermaine Jenas tells The Athletic. “I wouldn’t look at any of these players and say, ‘You’re better than Xavi, you’re better than Claude Makelele, you’re better than Sergio Busquets’. But when one player goes, it seems to determine the price of that particular type of player in the market.
Aged 21 at the time, the Argentina international was one of the stars of Qatar and Chelsea were hell-bent on signing him. Their decision to trigger Fernandez’s release clause at Benfica, and pay £106.8m (€120m) for a player who had made only 70 career appearances and cost as little as €10m five months earlier, raised eyebrows across the world of football.
It also raised the valuation of other No 6s and that ripple effect continues to be felt in the Premier League (the £58m that Southampton demanded Chelsea pay for 19-year-old Romeo Lavia this week serves as another example) and beyond.
The numbers are pretty wild for that type of player,” Jermaine Jenas tells The Athletic. “I wouldn’t look at any of these players and say, ‘You’re better than Xavi, you’re better than Claude Makelele, you’re better than Sergio Busquets’. But when one player goes, it seems to determine the price of that particular type of player in the market.
Premier League this days are powerful these days that Brighton can afford to turn down £90million. They can say, ‘We don’t need that money. We know what he’s worth, we think he’s better than Declan Rice so we’re going to demand this price and if you want him, come and get him. If not, he can stay here’. That never used to happen.”
Jenas, who won 21 caps in England’s midfield in the 2000s, is right about Brighton’s stance and the financial power of Premier League clubs more generally. It is also true that the transfer of one high-profile player can dictate the price for a specific position. When Manchester United signed Harry Maguire for £80m in 2019, Leicester used the £75m fee that Liverpool had paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk 18 months earlier as a benchmark.
In that sense, the money that Chelsea In that sense, the money that Chelsea paid for Fernandez at the turn of the year gave West Ham and Brighton more leverage in the transfer market this summer. A bidding war on the back of that — Manchester City and Arsenal trying to sign Rice, and Chelsea and Liverpool competing for Caicedo — created the perfect storm.
Others looked on with a genuine sense of bewilderment. “I couldn’t believe the price of Rice or Caicedo,” says a Premier League sporting director, who was talking to The Athletic on condition of anonymity.
According to Transfermarkt, which relies on the “wisdom of the crowd principle” to value players, Caicedo is worth €75million. Clearly, that figure means little in the grand scheme of things. Or does it?
I’d be lying if I said I never look at them (the values on Transfermarkt),” the sporting director adds. “If we’re looking at a player, you always have a look because they’re not a million miles away a lot of the time. So €75m for Caicedo, aged 21, playing a season and a half in the Premier League — you would say that’s reasonable. But then Enzo Fernandez moves, Brighton tie him (Caicedo) into a new contract and don’t need the money, and Declan Rice moves.”
There is another factor in all of this too and it comes down to something as simple as supply and demand. “One of the reasons they (No 6s) are moving for a lot of money is their skill set is actually quite scarce,” the sporting director adds, referencing how Casemiro, at the age of 30, moved to Manchester United last August for £70million.
To illustrate his point further, the sporting director reels off a long list of options at No 8 this summer and the slim pickings available at No 6, including PSV Eindhoven’s Ibrahim Sangare, who has been linked with clubs across the Premier League and Europe.
“Sangare is €30million. He is really good against the ball. But Sangare can’t take the ball,” he explains.
“Moises Caicedo, for example, playing out from the goalkeeper, dealing with the ball under pressure when heavily marked 25 yards out, he’s got the bollocks and the technical ability and the awareness to help you build in the first phase. Sangare hasn’t (got that).
“So when you get one who’s got the physical ability, the defensive acumen to do what those guys can do and they’re good with the ball, even though none of the ones that you’ve mentioned score or create goals on a consistent basis, that’s why you have the premium.”
The scout, The scout, who works for one of the top clubs in Europe, agrees with that description of Sangare. “Loose in possession,” he adds.
But he also explains how most clubs (and, to be clear, we are still talking about top clubs) will have “to sacrifice a bit of quality on the ball for someone who can get around the pitch”.
The alternative — technique over athleticism — will be less appealing to many Premier League clubs and, in the eyes of the scout, goes some way to explaining why the highly regarded Turkey international Orkun Kokcu ended up leaving Feyenoord for Benfica this summer for €30m rather than moving to England.
Doucoure crystal Palace is another player who has been on the scout’s radar — a midfielder he rates highly and who would have been a target for his club in a normal market. But £60-70million for Doucoure isn’t a normal market.
“I like Doucoure,” the scout, who didn’t want to be identified for obvious reasons, says. “He can do a bit of everything well… without being elite at anything.”
The key difference is that Fernandez, Rice and Caicedo are elite in several departments.
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