Osimhen: Football star makes FIFA top 10 transfers

The world football governing body, FIFA has listed Victor Osimhen’s record transfer from Lille of France to Napoli of Italy among the top 10 transfers in 2020, BSNSports.com.ng reports. FIFA, in its Global Transfer Market Report, said that the total amount spent on transfer fees of $5.63 billion was down by $1.7 billion in 2019, a fall of nearly a quarter to the lowest cumulative amount since 2016. The report listed the top 10 transfers in the men’s game, with Kai Havertz’s move from Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea featuring prominently alongside the likes of Arthur Melo’s transfer from Barcelona to Juventus, Osimhen going from Lille to Napoli, Bruno Fernandes joining Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon and Ruben Dias leaving Benfica for Manchester City. Also, FIFA said the number of clubs involved in transfers of women’s players rose by more than a quarter, reflecting “the impressive strides being made as more and more female football players are turning professional every year.” The biggest transfer in the women’s game was Pernille Harder’s switch from Wolfsburg to Chelsea, followed by the transfer of Malawi’s Temwa Chawinga from Sweden to Wuhan Jiangda in China. The number of international transfers of male players in 2020 dropped by 5.4 per cent compared to the previous year, while total transfer fees were down significantly, by 23.4 per cent, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a FIFA report published Monday revealed. Unsurprisingly, English clubs spent by far the most, with transfer fees totalling some $1.63 billion, followed by Italian clubs who spent a combined $731.5 million on international moves. Spanish clubs received the most, the report said, with $785.7 million. Without giving a specific figure, FIFA said that Chelsea spent the most of any club in Europe ahead of Manchester United and Manchester City, followed by Barcelona, Juventus and Leeds United.