Tomori, Abraham and Mount - how much do Chelsea make from selling youth players?

©Imago/Content stadium

The 2024 January transfer window has been anything but as fast-paced and dramatic as it was 12 months prior. And that’s almost entirely down to Chelsea actively choosing not to do any business in the window. Last year, following the arrival of a new club owner and a seemingly open cheque book, the Stamford Bridge side spent no less than €330 million on new signings over the course of the month - which amounted to no less than 45% of all the money spent on new signings by Premier League clubs in January 2023. 

Indeed, since Todd Boehly took over at Chelsea in the summer of 2022 the club have spent around €1.08 billion on new players. That sum of money has largely been financed by Boehly’s own personal wealth, but a large chunk of it has also been offset by the Stamford Bridge club’s ability to sell players - particularly young stars that came through the Chelsea youth academy. And when we take a look at Chelsea’s transfer activity over the last 10 years, we can see that the club’s ability to raise huge amounts of money from selling young players was firmly put in place long before Boehly took over. 

How much have Chelsea made from selling academy players?

According to Transfermarkt’s own data, since the start of the 2014/15 season Chelsea have sold 39 players that featured in some capacity for the club’s youth clubs and were classified as academy players for the Premier League side. In that period, Chelsea have made no less than €335.5m from selling those players on to other clubs. This works out at an average of €8.4m earned in transfer fees per academy player sold in this period of time and doesn’t include players that are already confirmed to be leaving the club next season - such as Lewis Hall’s imminent permanent move to Newcastle in the summer. 

To put that €335.5m figure into context and explain just how big of Chelsea’s income stream it constitutes, it’s worth considering that over the course of the last 10 seasons the Premier League side have earned €1.3b in total from selling players. Which means that the income from simply selling players from their youth teams makes up no less than 25.4% of their total income in the transfer window. To no great surprise, no club across European football has earned as much money as Chelsea from player sales since 2014/15 and even if we were to base their income solely on sales from youth players they would still come in at 52nd, higher than Newcastle and just below Aston Villa. 

When we then take a look at Chelsea’s income spread out over the last 10 seasons, we can see why Boehly & Co. were able to come in and immediately spend so much money. The season prior to their takeover saw Chelsea make no less than €132m from selling former youth academy players. And due to the fact that academy players very rarely cost a transfer fee to sign, clubs like Chelsea are able to sell such players at a complete profit. Which inevitably helps the club remain competitive and adhere to financial fair play rules. So while it may not be the most obvious revenue stream to most clubs, there’s little doubt that Chelsea have profited from their youth academy in more ways than one and are unlikely to stop selling the players that they train and develop in the years to come.