Real-Barca most 'expensive' match

The CIES Football Observatory publishes the rankings of matches during which teams fielded the most expensive players with regard to transfer fees paid. Heading the big-5
league rankings since 2009 is the clash Real Madrid-Barcelona: €690 million.

In the other championships, the most “expensive” matches this season were Manchester City-Chelsea (€578 million), Paris St-Germain-Marseille ( €503 million, Bayern Munich-Borussia Dortmund (€272 million) and Inter-Napoli (€263 million).

This analysis shows the increasing impact of money at the highest level of European football and the difficulty encountered by the vast majority of teams to reach the performance levels of the richest clubs. This state of affairs leads to more predictable results.

Thus, the five clubs touted by our research team as favourites at the start of the season are either in the first (Bayern Munich, Chelsea) or second place (Paris St-Germain, Barcelona, Rome) of their respective championships.