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Is there a "Bundesliga tax"?
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Benjamin Sesko’s €76.5 million move from RB Leipzig to Manchester United represents a lot of things. Not only is it the third most expensive deal of the summer window and the Old Trafford club’s seventh most expensive signing ever, but it is also yet another big-money move from the Bundesliga to the Premier League. This summer alone clubs up and down the division have spent a remarkable €495m on players from the Bundesliga, with stars like Jamie Gittens, Hugo Ekitiké, Florian Wirtz and many others swap the German top-flight for the bright lights in England.
However, while there’s little doubt that Man Utd, Liverpool & Co. have done their homework on the new recruits, a stigma still remains surrounding players that make the move to England from Germany. The so-called “Bundesliga tax” is a term that was coined to suggest that English clubs have often paid a perceived inflation of transfer fees on players from the German top-flight. So is it true? Today we’ve taken a look at the top 10 transfers paid by English clubs for German-based players, prior to 2025. And, using the market values of the players in question upon joining the Premier League, have deduced how many lived up to the billing and how many surpassed all expectations.
10. Naby Keita: €65m move to Liverpool
We kick off the list with a player that undoubtedly struggled to live up to the hype in the Premier League. In 2018, Liverpool paid €65m to sign Naby Keita from RB Leipzig after two impressive seasons in the Bundesliga. As it turned out, Keita wasn’t quite up to the standard that Liverpool had hoped for and over the course of his five seasons at the club the Guinean midfielder saw his market value drop from a high of €65m down to just €10m, before a return to the Bundesliga in 2023.
9. Erling Haaland: €60m move to Manchester City
The second name on the list is a pretty easy one to draw a firm conclusion on. Erling Haaland swapped Borussia Dortmund for Manchester City in the summer of 2022 for €60m. At the time his market value stood at a remarkable €150m and since then it has steadily risen to €180m. Despite starting off with such a high market value, the Norwegian striker has undoubtedly lived up to the billing in Pep Guardiola’s team and is certainly considered an absolute bargain at €60m.
8. Christopher Nkunku: €60m move to Chelsea
The next player on the list hasn’t enjoyed as much good fortune in the Premier League. While Christopher Nkunku made the move to Chelsea for €60m in the summer of 2023 amidt plenty of buzz, the French winger has undoubtedly struggled to live up to expectation at Stamford Bridge. Either through injury - 54 games missed in the last two seasons - or the sheer number of competitors signed to Chelsea’s squad, Nkunku’s market value has steadily declined since making the move to England to where it now stands at €35m. In this case, the Bundesliga star didn’t quite match the demands of the English top-flight.
7. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: €64m move to Arsenal
As one of the earliest transfers on the list, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s €64m move to Arsenal in 2018 set the standard for many Bundesliga imports that followed. The Gabon striker undoubtedly hit the ground running at Arsenal, bagging 54 league goals in his first two and a half seasons at the club, which saw his market value rise from €65m to €75m. What then followed was a slow demise, as the North London club struggled in the English top-flight, leading to Aubameyang being rather unceremoniously released on a free transfer in 2022. Despite that, many Arsenal fans look back on the forward’s time at the club with delight and there can be little doubt that 92 goals and 21 assists in 163 games is seen as a success.
6. Christian Pulisic: €64m move to Chelsea
Another Chelsea signing from the Bundesliga that probably didn’t live up the hype was Christian Pulisic. Signed from Dortmund for €60m in January 2019, the American winger eventually made his first appearances in the Premier League in the following season, where he did quite well with 15 goals and assists in 25 games. However, like Nkunku, injury struck and over the course of the next four seasons Pulisic missed 65 games through a number of injuries. As such, despite arriving at Chelsea with a market value of €60m, that figure gradually fell to a low of €25m, before the player ultimately left in 2023.
5. Dominik Szoboszlai: €70m move to Liverpool
A far more recent transfer sits fifth in our list, with Dominik Szoboszlai’s €70m move to Liverpool in 2023. Despite being at the club for just two full seasons, the Hungarian midfielder has quickly established himself as a key player for the Anfield club. With no less than 15 goals and 14 assists in 94 games across all competitions, Szoboszlai has proven himself to be an excellent box-to-box talent and as such his market value has steadily risen €50m when he joined Liverpool to where it now stands at €80m.
4. Kevin de Bruyne: €76m move to Manchester City
Another Bundesliga midfielder that made short work of the apparent demands of the Premier League was Kevin de Bruyne. Despite a remarkably high transfer fee at the time, De Bruyne would go on to become a pivotal member of a Man City squad that dominated the English top-flight. So much so that the Belgian international is considered to be one of the best playmakers to grace the Premier League. As such, his market value soared from €45m on his first day at the club to a peak of €150m in 2018 and is undoubtedly one of the best examples of a player making the step up from the Bundesliga to the Premier League with relative ease.
3. Jadon Sancho: €85m move to Manchester United
While De Bruyne is perhaps the best player to swap the Bundesliga for the Premier League, in fourth place we have one of the most high-profile flops between the two leagues in Jadon Sancho. Whether the English winger simply wasn’t up to the task of thriving in the English top-flight or was a victim of circumstance - like so many players at Old Trafford over the years - is certainly up for debate, but what can’t be questioned is that Man Utd have seen very little return for the €85m they paid for the Dortmund winger in 2021. And despite once boasting a market value of €100m, Sancho now looks set to depart Man Utd this summer with one that now stands at just €28m.
2. Josko Gvardiol: €90m move to Manchester City
Another Man City signing that has done well to fly the flag for the German top-flight in the Premier League is Josko Gvardiol. While the Croatian may have raised a few eyebrows when he joined Man City in 2023 for a staggering €90m, Gvardiol has quietly and confidently gone about becoming one of Guardiola’s most important players. And at just 23 years of age, he still has plenty of room to continue growing into a world class defender. Even though his market value hasn’t shifted from the €75m it stood at when he joined the club, it’s more than likely that it will rise in the coming years.
1. Kai Havertz: €100m move to Chelsea
Unlike De Bruyne, the jury is still somewhat out for the most expensive Bundesliga import to the Premier League. While Arsenal fans undoubtedly appreciate the talents of Kai Havertz, Chelsea fans will still question whether he was really worth the €80m the club paid to sign him in 2020, or indeed the €20m in add-ons that came about from the club winning the Champions League. The German international certainly had moments of success - which ultimately led to Arsenal’s interest in him - but he never quite lived up the billing at Stamford Bridge and as such his market value fell from a high of €81m to just €55m during his time at Chelsea.
