By: Luca Muehlbauer

The transfer window started on January first and ended on January 31st. The January transfer window is one month in the soccer season when you can buy or loan a player. For example, If I had a team ( I wish I did), I couldn’t buy a player in October because it’s not in the transfer window, but in January I can because it is the transfer window. 

On day one of the transfer window, there was already a breaking headline. Cristiano Ronaldo announced that he would be taking his talents to Saudi Arabia, playing for Al Nassr. His contract shocked the world, but his contract stated that over the course of 2.5 years, he would earn 200 million dollars. 

Two days later there was another shocking move. Cody Gakpo, the Dutch youngster who had a world-class World cup, was heading to Liverpool. Liverpool was not expecting to buy him, but they made a quick swap and bought him from PSV for 35-45 million euros. Manchester United was predicted to sign him, but Liverpool caught them off guard and picked him up first. 

Then on January 5th, two more moves were announced. The long-time Ajax defender Daley Blind decided to leave on a free transfer to Bayern Munich. This was a surprising move from Daley Blind. Then, Chelsea made a surprising transfer and signed a youngster out of Monaco, Benoit Badiashile. This defender would cost them 35 million euros for his term of seven and a half years. 

On January 11th Chelsea decided to make an expensive loan deal, Joao Felix would become a Chelsea player till the end of the season. Felix is a wonderful player with lots of skill, but his first game in the Chelsea blue jersey did not go as planned. He received a red card and that would later on cost Chelsea. After this red card, it would mean Chelsea would have to pay Atlético de Madrid 714,286 thousand euros per game. 

On January 13th Manchester United inquired about the Burnley striker, Wout Weghorst. United required a striker since Ronaldo left and Martial wasn’t reliable enough. They decided to go for Wout Weghorst after his amazing performance in the world cup, especially his game against Argentina. United had negotiated a loan deal with Burnley in which he will stay until the end of the season. When the summer window hits they will probably be in the market for another striker once again. 

January 15th was a very big day. Mudryk from Shaktar, a young talent watched by two important clubs, Arsenal and Chelsea, had been signed. Chelsea had made an outstanding offer of 88.5 million euros and Mudryk gratefully accepted. He would later sign a contract for 7 and a half years with an optional additional year. 

On January 20th there were multiple major events. The biggest one was probably Leonardo Trossard, from Brighton, being bought from Arsenal. Arsenal paid Brighton 27 million euros for Trossard. Then the other two transfers that went down were Chris Wood, who left Newcastle to go on loan at Nottingham Forest. After not playing much and sitting on the bench for most of the season, they decided to loan him out to a relegation team. Finally, a surprising signing by West Ham. They decided to pursue Danny Ings from Aston Villa and they were successful, offering him 15 million euros.

January 25th was one wacky day. Arnaut Danjuma kept the whole world on a roller coaster, as he had accepted an Everton transfer and completed all the steps, all that was left was to send in the paperwork. At the last minute, he rejected and switched his signing to Tottenham. This was an incredible mix-up and it left Everton furious. So now, Danjuma is working on signing with Tottenham Hotspurs. 

On January 29th, two days before the transfer window ended, Newcastle made an interesting bid. They decided to offer Everton 45 million euros for Anthony Gordon. The youngster was urged to exit because Everton was not putting up good fixtures and was in the relegation zone. Everton was not keen on selling him but after much negotiation, they sold him to Newcastle.

January 30th was a day for the smaller teams to shine. Weston Mckennie, the American from Juventus, had signed a loan deal with Leeds until the end of the season. Leeds will be hoping to make a push in the league and end in a  good position. Then Bournemouth made a signing of Uruguayan left-back Matias Vina, out of Roma. They decided to loan him out. 

The final day, January 31st, was purely hectic. To start it off, a shock deal by Bayern Munich went through. They were able to sign Joao Cancelo on loan from Manchester City. Then the Chelsea captain Jorginho was signed by London rivals Arsenal for 12 million euros. Arsenal then decided to loan out Albert Sambi Lokonga to Crystal Palace. Tottenham decided to sign a defender out of Sporting, by the name of Pedro Porro on a loan. Nottingham Forest had to sign a goalie after the injury of Dean Henderson. They went into the market to look for one and were lucky enough to find Keylor Navas, who they signed on a loan. Bayern Munich signed a great player but also loaned out a great player, they loaned out Marcel Sabitzer to Manchester United. Then finally the biggest signing of the day was Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea. All January they were talking about this potential signing for Chelsea. Around mid-January, it was informed that talks over Enzo Fernandez had collapsed but on the final two days of the window Chelsea made an offer Benifica could not reject. So for an outrageous 106.8 million euros, Chelsea was able to successfully sign Enzo Fernandez. 

The transfer window ended with a world-shaking signing of Enzo Fernandez but all trades throughout January have been fantastic. Chelsea and Nottingham Forest were signing players left and right while Liverpool and Manchester City stayed relatively quiet. There will be more to come in the summer, but this was one for the ages.