Player transfer market: More than 3 billion USD

On March 1, FIFA released its first report on the world's player transfer management system.

According to the report titled "Global Transfer Market 2011", in 2011 there were more than 11,500 changes in the "color" of players, with the peak being January of the winter transfer period and July and August of the summer transfer period. The amount of money that football teams threw into the player shopping market last year amounted to more than 3 billion USD.

August 31, 2011 was the busiest day for player transfers, with 317 transfers from one country to another. During the whole of last year, a new transfer was made every 45 minutes on average. More than 70% of the transfers were for players whose contracts had expired, while 20% were loans or players returning to their previous clubs after their loan contracts had expired. This left only about 10% as permanent transfers.

FIFA reports that the average annual salary of a professional footballer is $244,000. However, this high figure is achieved by a group of stars enjoying sky-high incomes. In reality, the average is only about $43,000. Likewise, blockbuster contracts also have a strong impact on average transfer fees. According to calculations, each transfer in 2011 cost an average of $1.5 million, but FIFA says that only 14% of transfers involved actual money.

The average age of players transferred last year was 23, half were in the "ripe" age of their careers, between 22 and 27, while the "oldest" case was 46 years old.

It is also worth noting that FIFA's transfer management system only counts international player transfers, not "internal" transfers within a country. 2011 saw South American players gain popularity, with 13% of all transfers going to the Brazilian "Samba Dancers".

The playersArgentina,UruguayandColombiaare also in the Top 10. In Europe, the most transferred players are French players, and in Africa, they areNigeria.

This transfer management system was implemented compulsorily from October 1, 2010 and 2011 was the first time all 208 FIFA member associations and more than 5,000 clubs used this system./.

According to VNA