One of the most crucial hallmarks of success and growth, and one of the most important revenue streams, for every club is their return on investment in the transfer market.
That is not just the amount of money they make through selling players for profit. But also the growth in Expected Transfer Value for players under their guidance, and the impact of their players on the results of the first team.
Now we have a formula that shows which clubs are the most successful in the transfer market, showing their strength in all three areas.
And after analysing the data and showcasing this to an audience of world football’s financial powerbrokers at our first-ever TransferRoom Leaders: Football Finance Forum on Monday 10th November 2025, we can reveal the top 10 clubs by transfer success since 2017.
What is Transfer Success?
Transfer Success is defined by our “Return On Investment” (ROI) method, calculated as:
- TransferRoom’s Expected Transfer Value (xTV) after 3 years at the club, or up to now, or the fee from a subsequent sale if sooner
- + value of points added in domestic league whilst at club
- - fee paid for player
- - estimated total salary paid to player in the first 3 years (or up to now)
If the ROI figure is positive, we call the transfer a success, if it is negative it is a failure.
Revealed: Top 10 by Transfer Success
The best club in the world since 2017 for Transfer Success has been Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium. Here we give more insight why, and dig into some of the highlights for the top four teams in this list. Look below for the full top 10.
After winning the Belgian second division title in 2019/20, Union SG finished first in the regular Belgian Jupiler Pro League season and won the overall title after the championship play-off for the first time in 2024/25. They are now top of the table again in 2025/26.
The highlights include:
- First-team regular Kamiel Van De Perre, whose ROI figure is a staggering 5074% after joining from K.R.C. Genk’s youth team, Jong Genk, on a free transfer in 2024.
- Youssoufou Niakaté, worth €416k when he joined from French side US Boulogne CO in 2018. He scored 25 goals in 40 matches in one season for Union SG and was sold to Al Wehda Saudi Club for €2million in the summer of 2019.
- Cameron Puertas, worth €1.5m when he joined from Lausanne-Sport in 2022, and sold to Al-Qadsiah Saudi Club for €15.3m in a deal helped by TransferRoom in 2024.
Brazilian club Red Bull Bragantino rank second, with smart transfer business at the heart of their rise from the third tier in Brazil, Campeonato Paulista, to establishing themselves as a top side in Série A.
Two €400k signings, Juninho Capixaba, who joined from Gremio and remains a key player for Bragantino at €3.5m, and defensive midfielder Raul, integral for the club over a five-year period before he joined Club Athletico Paranaense in 2025, are two standout examples of clever business.
In third is Club Atlético Talleres in the Argentine Primera División. Before 2017, Talleres had never won a major trophy in Argentina and had finished runners-up in the top league only once.
But they were champions of Supercopa Internacional, Argentina's top cup national competition, for the first time in their history in 2023. And they runners-up in the league in 2023 and 2024, and Copa Argentina in 2020 and 2022.
Their top signings for ROI include Andrés Cubas, signed on a free transfer and sold to Nîmes Olympique for €2.9m two years later, and Rodrigo Garro (pictured below), transferred in from Instituto ACC for €308k in 2022 before moving to Brazilian giants Corinthians for €4.6m in 2024. They also signed Ecuadorian centre-back Piero Hincapié and sold him for €3.6m and sold him to Bayer 04 Leverkusen for €6.4m in 2021, 12 months after bringing him in.
The biggest name in this top four won’t be a surprise to many, especially those who follow the English Premier League.
Brentford were promoted to the PL for the first time in 2020/21 and have remained there ever since. And throughout this period they have been renowned for data-led recruitment, expert succession planning for any key departures, and buying low and selling high.
While Bryan Mbeumo and Yoanne Wissa’s big-money moves to Manchester United and Newcastle United this summer make the headlines (Mbeumo signed for €6.5m, sold for €75.0m, Wissa signed for €10.0m, sold for €57.7m), their biggest return on investment since 2017 has been Mads Roerslev, at 1077%. They spent just €60k on the Danish right-back in 2020, and he was a key part of their success for five years before switching to Southampton in 2025 Summer Transfer Window.
Why is Transfer Success only measured over three years?
Because we are evaluating the decision to sign the player. If we go longer we start to also evaluate the decision to give them a new contract.
How the 'Value of Points Added' is calculated
The "value of points added" is quite complex but it has two steps:
- Machine learning to equate that player’s actions on the pitch (goals, assists, tackles, blocks, passes, etc) to points in the league table
- 7-10 points added for a single player is a very good season. The best seasons in the world (Lionel Messi, for example) are around 15.
The interpretation of "Messi added 15 points in X season" is "his club would have been 15 points lower in the league table by swapping Messi's minutes for a replacement level player in the league, such as an unheralded academy product. We put a value on those points based on the average investment in fees and salaries in each league, in recent seasons.
For example, our data shows that on average, it costs €2M per point in the Premier League.
But it costs more to go from 70 to 80 points, for example, rather than 30 to 40 points. So we also factor that into the metric.
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