10 Biggest sell-on fees in football history

Sell on transfer fee clauses are very common in the modern game and work when a side adds a clause to a player’s transfer, enabling the selling club to earn a further fee later down the line should that player be sold again. For example, if Ivan Toney, rumoured with a switch to Manchester United, were to leave Brentford, both his former clubs, Newcastle and Peterborough, would claim huge sell on fees, with the Posh rumoured to pocket £30m if anyone meets Brentford’s £100m valuation of the striker, as reported in The Sun.

It can go the other way. Southampton missed out on £20m when not adding in a sell-on fee when they sold Gareth Bale to Tottenham, who would go on to join Real Madrid in 2013 for £85m. While it seems like a very sensible way for so-called smaller clubs to protect their assets and get another big pay day, they actually benefit the game’s biggest clubs more than anyone else. In today’s game, many clubs have benefited from this element of a contract. GIVEMESPORT looks at some of the biggest sell-on fees in football history.

10 Ollie Watkins – Brentford to Aston Villa: £28m

Sell-on clause: Exeter City earned £4m

Between 2014 and 2017, Ollie Watkins scored 26 goals in 78 games for Exeter City, during which time he had a loan spell at Weston-super-Mare. In actual fact, the striker failed to make the Exeter squad in the early part of 2015/16 season, but as a product of the club’s academy, Exeter still had belief in their striker. His 13 League Two goals in 2016/17 saw the club reach the play-offs, where they lost in the final at Wembley to Blackpool. Brentford had been keeping tabs, signing the youngster in 2017. When Aston Villa came in for him in 2020, with a bid of £28m, Exeter made more than £4m on the sell-on clause. Today, Chelsea are rumoured to be interested in £75m-rated Watkins, could it be Brentford who profit from a further sale?

9 Jude Bellingham – Dortmund to Real Madrid: £88.5m

Sell-on clause: Birmingham City earned £4.4m

Birmingham City famously retired the number 22 jersey when local lad Jude Bellingham was sold to Borussia Dortmund in 2020. Some fans mocked them for this, but the club showed they are far from stupid, adding in a sell clause for the youngster which earned the Blues a £4m sell on fee when Real Madrid paid almost £90m to Dortmund for the midfielder just three years after he left St Andrews. Bellingham has always said he is a true blue, and according to the Birmingham Mail, this fee prevented the club from going into financial difficulties.

8 Cesc Fabregas – Barcelona to Chelsea: £30m

Sell-on clause: Arsenal earned £5m

Arsenal fans may not have been happy to see their former skipper join London rivals Chelsea for £30m after leaving Barcelona. It was hard seeing him leave after he’d been in such scintillating form at Arsenal in the 2009/10 season, but the Gunners did in fact benefit from the Spaniard’s return to England. Not because he wasn’t successful at Stamford Bridge – he won the Premier League twice with Chelsea, in 2015 and 2017 – but because Arsenal had a sell-on clause on Fabregas’s departure from the club in 2011. It meant the Gunners made an additional £5m.

7 Adam Lallana – Southampton to Liverpool: £25m

Sell-on clause: Bournemouth earned £6.25m

In a very shrewd move, AFC Bournemouth ensured there was a sell-on clause for Adam Lallana, when he left the club for Southampton as a 12-year-old in 2000. It was for 25%, so when Liverpool bought him from Saints 14 years later, the Cherries earned themselves more than £6m. Bournemouth had to be patient though, initially getting only £2,000 in compensation, but it shows that putting in such clauses for talented youngsters is a must for any club who want to recoup the time and money they have put into developing and nurturing academy players.

6 David Bentley – Blackburn to Tottenham Hotspur: £17m

Sell-on clause: Arsenal earned £7m

Despite being incredibly talented, David Bentley retired aged only 29. Sometimes a sell-on fee can cause a team to help out their bitter rivals, as was the case when Spurs paid Blackburn £15m for Bentley in 2008, in a deal that was rumoured to rise to £17m. Arsenal had added a sell on clause when they sold Bentley to Blackburn two years earlier. Arsenal manager of the time, Arsene Wenger, said he had no regrets selling Bentley, although that was not because the Frenchman did not rate him, as reported in the Daily Mirror, Wenger said:

5 John Stones – Everton to Manchester City: £47.5m

Sell-on clause: Barnsley earned £7.1m

By adding a sell on clause, Barnsley earned more on John Stones’ £48m transfer from Everton to Manchester City in 2016 than they’d spent on transfers in the previous decade. With a 15-20% clause in place, the Yorkshire club reportedly received over seven million. This was the cherry on the cake for Barnsley, with the 2015/16 season seeing them win the Football League Trophy and get promoted back to the Championship after beating Millwall 3-1 in the play-off final. Still known as the Barnsley Beckenbauer, Stones recalled to the Football Association how he loved every minute of his time with the Yorkshire club.

4 Michael Keane – Burnley to Everton: £30m

Sell-on clause: Manchester United earned £7.5m sell-on fee

Money goes to money, is an often heard phrase and was very much the case when Manchester United claimed more than £7m when their former defender Michael Keane made the move from Burnley to Everton for £30m in 2017. Although surplus to requirements at Old Trafford, the Manchester United hierarchy obviously still rated him to some extent, with the club adding a 25% sell on clause after selling him to Burnley for £2m in 2015.

3 Raheem Sterling – Liverpool to Manchester City: £49m

Sell-on clause: Queens Park Rangers earned £8m

Raheem Sterling is heavily tipped to leave his latest club Chelsea, but over the course of his career, former England international Sterling’s career transfer fees have topped £100m, with his move to Liverpool from Queens Park Rangers in 2010, when Sterling was still only 17, rumoured to be only around £60k in value. However, QPR would later recoup a far bigger fee of nearly £8m after Manchester City brought him to the club from Anfield in 2015.

2 Kevin de Bruyne – Wolfsburg to Manchester City: £55m

Sell-on clause: Chelsea earned £10m

There has been much speculation over the future of Kevin de Bruyne in 2024. Chelsea are often mocked for selling him, but the club did do some due diligence, when in 2014 they sold him to Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, but with a caveat, which proved to be financially rewarding in only 18 months. Having first received £18m for the Belguim in 2014, by 2015 they got a further £10m as part of an agreed sell-on clause when Manchester City bought him back to the Premier League for £55m.

1 Tino Livramento – Southampton to Newcastle: £32m

Sell-on clause: Chelsea earned £15m

As this list demonstrates, it is not just the so-called smaller clubs who benefit from sell on fees, in fact it’s actually the big boys, with Chelsea proving to be savvy operators in this area, this time benefiting to the tune of the £15m after Newcastle paid Southampton £32m for the services of English full-back Tino Livramento, who is tipped by some to become one of the Premier League’s greatest full-backs, had a great season at Southampton before getting injured and Saints eventually getting relegated. Once an academy player at Stamford Bridge, Livramento’s move to Newcastle meant Chelsea quadrupled their profit on the player after first selling him to the Saints in 2021 for £5m.

Statistics via Transfermart. Correct as of 16.07.24.