At midnight on February 22, the transfer window closed in the Russian Premier League (RPL), which, due to objective reasons, turned out to be quite unusual. Many clubs did not enter the market at all in search of newcomers, and Spartak Moscow spent the most on acquiring players – € 6 million. The amount is quite modest, given that in the winter of 2022, four clubs at once laid out more for new players than the red and white Now. Nevertheless, in general, the RPL has a negative balance of income and expenses: minus € 2.3 million. With this modest amount by football standards, Russia ranks sixth in transfer losses among European championships and tenth in the world.
Three times lower costs
Winter 2022 turned out to be extremely eventful: the purchase of Yuri Alberto by Zenit, seven newcomers to Spartak, transfers of Carrascal and Yazici to CSKA, Smolov’s transfer to Dynamo … That winter window turned out to be one of the most wasteful in the history of the league: only twice clubs spent more than those €82 million.
Last winter showed that RPL clubs have recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. But they didn’t anticipate the gigantic challenges they would face in 2022.
The mass departure of legionnaires, the deprivation of Russia of European cups and the loss of foreign sponsors forced the RPL clubs to revise their budgets. Unsurprisingly, in the past transfer window, they collectively spent three times less than a year ago. The reasons for this are both problems with money and a significant narrowing of the circle of players who are ready to negotiate with Russian clubs. A year ago, 125 players moved to RPL clubs, and now only 86.
Lokomotiv has the worst balance
The most active players on the transfer market were Khimki, Torpedo and Krylya Sovetov. The Moscow Region club signed contracts with 12 new players at once, and Samarans and car manufacturers have significantly updated their squads. At the same time, Wings were in the biggest plus this winter (+ €1.87 million): profitable sales of Pinyaev and Glushenkov to Lokomotiv allowed them to cover the costs of buying Pisarsky, Shitov, Rasskazov and Garre.
And the red-greens, due to the acquisition of Pinyaev and Glushenkov, finished first in terms of transfer losses (-4.6 million euros). But not in terms of net costs: Spartak took the lead here, shelling out €6 million for Duarte and Tavares.
Zenit have also been in the spotlight due to a dodgy trade deal for Youri Alberto to Corinthians, but defender Robert Renan’s move is technically considered free. The Blue-White-Blues generally went to zero this winter: they gained €2 million on the transfer of Lovren to Lyon and spent the same amount on buying Alip from Kairat.
In general, the activity of Russian clubs was extremely low. In the winter of 2022, four clubs at once spent more than Spartak now. In the winter of 2023, Rostov, Sochi and Fakel spent nothing and did not earn anything. It is appropriate to include Dynamo in the same group – the purchase of Majstorović from Vojvodina for €1.2 million was announced back in August, but the transfer itself took place now.
Duarte Best Buy, Ayrton Best Selling
Until recently, double-digit transfer amounts were commonplace, but this winter the most expensive newcomer to the league was Paraguayan Alexis Duarte, for whom Spartak paid Cerro Porteño €4 million. A year ago, representatives of the Russian Premier League immediately paid more for six players.
It is also indicative that the two biggest sales of the transfer window are the buyouts of loan players by Brazilian clubs. Internacional paid €4.5 million to Krasnodar for Wanderson, while Flamengo forked €7 million for Spartak defender Ayrton. This winter, Russian clubs in general rarely sold someone abroad – Lovren’s transfer from Zenit to Lyon for € 2 million can be regarded almost as a miracle.
Of course, even before the RPL was not considered a donor league, but there has never been such a sluggish interaction with foreign clubs.
Focus on South America
As a result of the summer transfer window, we stated that the Russian clubs have identified a clear vector – the search for foreign players is mainly conducted in South America and Eastern Europe. Winter highlighted the trend: the majority of newcomers joined the league from these regions. And specifically, from South America – 12, Eastern Europe – 7, CIS countries – 5, Africa – 4, Western Europe – only 3. Moreover, all three new legionnaires with EU passports are Africans by origin. The Portuguese Tomas Tavares has roots from Cape Verde, and the French newcomers of the Torch, Rabei and Brahimi, also have Algerian citizenship.
Still in the top spender
A year ago, the Russian Championship ranked third among all leagues in the world in terms of transfer losses. At that time, the negative balance of transfers was about €50 million, which is very far from the current figures. But even with a modest minus of € 2.3 million, RPL closed the top ten.
The top three places in the world in terms of transfer losses are England (-€727.2m), Turkey (-€18.2m) and the USA (-€13.2m).
If we filter out non-European leagues in the top 10, then Russia ranks sixth in terms of transfer losses. Is there anything to be proud of here? Probably not. This transfer window has simply become an indicator of the peculiarities of a difficult time. RPL shows that it is still ready to spend, albeit not as large sums as before. The question is why clubs don’t spend. Trite to save or fail to lure strong players because of the lack of European competition and difficulties in negotiations?
