Only St. Petersburg players are on the plus side: RPL spent more on transfers than in Spain

The 2025 winter transfer window in RPL has closed, which means it's time to look at the main indicators and figures. Let's start with the general summary: the clubs spent almost €82.17m on newcomers, the second result in the last 10 years, just a little bit short of the figure for 2022 (€82.3m). In terms of sales revenue, this is also the second for the decade - almost €66 million (they earned more only in 2019, - €68 million). It is interesting that last winter RPL clubs were actively spending, but did not replenish the club coffers through exit transfers. Now the situation is more balanced - the figures for spending and income are close.

More than in Spain

The RPL cannot compete with the majority of top European championships in terms of transfer amounts. The exception is Spain, where Javier Tebas' system of restraints severely limits teams. Tellingly, only five La Liga representatives have made inbound transfers this winter, with Betis spending half of the total amount (€13m).

Ligue 1 clubs have made incredible money on sales this winter, but the APL has gone into severe negative territory. The reason is the purchase of Manchester City, who needed a reboot as the season progressed (the Citizens forked out €218 million for newcomers - almost half of the total spend in the league).

Only five RPL clubs have gone without purchases this winter. However, only five of them crossed the one million euro mark. Only two teams - Akron and Dynamo - did not make money on sales.

Let's note Zenit, which already at the expense of winter sales has already repaid the signing of Luis Enrique (although Arthur and Wendel were stitched into him) and even made a profit. "Spartak" also spent a lot (almost €30 million), but earned not the largest amount on the departures of Shamar Nicholson and Pavel Meleshin.

Rostov had the biggest plus in winter - the southerners didn't spend on transfers and received €8m from Dynamo for Danil Glebov. Lokomotiv, Zenit, Krylia Sovetov and Orenburg also had good revenue figures.

Krasnodar were also passive - the Bulls didn't take any newcomers and earned only on the sale of Georgi Harutyunyan to the Pushkash Academy for a million euros.

Enrique and Claudinho

Zenit and Spartak made the biggest deals in winter. The Blues and Whites pulled off the biggest transfer in the league - €33 million went to Botafogo for Luis Enrique. Plus, at the last minute, they made the transfer of Sasha Zdelar from CSKA. The Muscovites invested serious sums in Levi Garcia and Pablo Solari, plus took Ilya Pomazun from CSKA. Dynamo spent just over €10 million, but brought in two newcomers - Glebov and Juan Caceres from Lanus.

CSKA also strengthened their roster, spending a solid €4.2 million for Brazilian forward Alerrandro. It will be interesting to watch Bosnian Ifet Dzakovac at Akron - the striker had a great season in the Serbian league (8+8 on a goal-plus-assist basis).

In terms of sales, Zenit are top of the list here - the St. Petersburg side made €36m on Claudinho, Arthur and Isidore. Plus they agreed on Wendel's departure at the end of the season, but the figures for this deal are not yet included in the table.

CSKA finally managed to land Bruno Fuchs and even got some money for him. However, it was understandably impossible to recoup the €8 million paid in the summer of 2020. It's the same story for Spartak with Shamar Nicholson - the Jamaican, who was bought for €8 million, left for the Mexican championship three years later for €1.6 million.

We will also see off Benjamin Garre, who showed great results at Krylia - he will continue his career in the Brazilian championship.

Where from and where to

The RPL transfer trend of recent years has continued: a minimum of deals with clubs from Western Europe and a serious bias towards Latin America. Almost half of the foreigners this winter came to Russia from there. The CIS and Eastern European countries are in second place.

South America - 8

CIS countries - 4

Eastern Europe - 4

Africa - 1

RPL clubs sell mainly to the CIS region - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Also a lot of players went to South America, a little less - to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. It should be noted that there were almost no deals with Asian clubs - only Felipe Cardoso went on loan from Akhmat to Chinese Henan.

CIS countries - 13

South America - 9

Eastern Europe - 5

Middle East - 4

Central America - 2

Western Europe - 1

Asia - 1