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Arrived in July at FC Barcelona, ​​Antoine Griezmann was one of the big transfers of this summer mercato 2019. REUTERS / Albert Gea

The transfer window has just ended this Monday, September 2, it has been marked, in the last hours, the non-departure of Neymar Paris-Saint Germain. But this year, it's also the Spanish Liga that has been particularly expensive. Three questions to Bastien Drut, doctor of economics and author of Mercato, the football economy in the 21st century .

The Spanish Liga has been particularly active in this transfer window, beating its record of spending with more than 1.3 billion invested this year. The English still remain the biggest investors in players, as explains Bastien Drut, doctor in economics and author of Mercato, the football economy in the XXI century , at the microphone of RFI.

During this transfer window, the Spanish Liga broke its record. How to explain it ?

The Spanish clubs have spent this summer 1.3 billion euros. They have largely broken their record since last year they had spent only one billion. It's really the Spanish clubs that animated this summer transfer window. There were three transfers to more than 100 million euros this summer, and these three transfers were made by Spanish clubs. There were Real Madrid, Barça and Athletico, who bought respectively Eden Hazard, Antoine Griezmann and Joao Felix. Spanish clubs are forced to invest heavily enough to catch up with the English clubs that made a strong impression in European competitions last year.

It is also the English clubs that, as every year, have invested the most ...

Yes, the English Premier League clubs have spent just over 1.55 billion euros, which is way above all the other European leagues. Of course, this is because English clubs have television rights that are much higher than those of other European championships. We can also mention the fact that if we take the five major European leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, ed), the Ligue 1 is the only championship where the balance of transfers is surplus: it means that the clubs they have sold more than they bought, while the other four leagues are losing money, which means they bought a lot more than they sold players in the transfer market.

Does this mean that the French have been more cautious, more economical?

What has been observed for a number of years now is that Ligue 1 clubs, in order to achieve a balanced budget, are obliged to sell a certain number of players to the other championships; that's how they get money to balance.