January 2026 Transfers Tracker (Preliminary Version)
Image Credit: Christopher Bill
The January transfer window is a perfect opportunity for football clubs in most leagues across Europe and other continents to re-tool their squads, which is done for several reasons, including: avoiding relegation, making a run to qualify for a continental club competition and aiming to win the league title or a continental title.
In other places in the world — as well as some northern European leagues (think those in the Nordic countries, bar those in Denmark) — the January transfer window extends beyond one month because it is those clubs’ offseason. This means that some clubs may completely overhaul their squads ahead of the following season. As a result, those leagues experience a lot more transfer activity.
That said, while the Holidays for most people serve as a relaxing period with friends and family, for footballers and management personnel, it may be the final days living in a city or even in a particular country.
2026 January Transfer Tracker
For the first time, we created an interactive tool tracking all transfers occurring in Europe’s top five leagues:
Bundesliga (Germany);
LaLiga (Spain);
Ligue 1 (France);*
Premier League/EPL (England);** and
Serie A.
This tracker identifies the number of transfers of the top five European leagues, by league, and the total amount of British pounds spent and earned by clubs within these leagues. That said, the tracker includes overlap in money spent due to intra-league transfers: players moving from one club in a league to another club in that same league. Moreover, this tracker is a preliminary version, with opportunities for broadening its scope to include more nuanced data.
The figure below shows the amount of money spent and earned in transfer income by clubs in each of Europe’s top five leagues.
Source: The Guardian
Note: The figure was last updated on January 6, 2026.
* Ligue 1 includes AS Monaco, which are based in the Principality of Monaco.
** The EPL may include a number of clubs from Wales. These clubs, which currently participate in one of the English Football League’s top four divisions, include EFL Championship clubs Swansea City and Wrexham AFC, EFL League One club Cardiff City and EFL League Two club Newport County. That said, there are no Welsh clubs competing in the EPL for the 2025-26 season.
