In professional association football, a transfer is when a player under contract moves from one club to another. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration to their new club. In general, players can only be transferred during a transfer window and according to the rules set by a governing body. A transfer fee is the agreed financial compensation paid by the new club to the selling club.
When a player moves from one club to another, their old contract is terminated whilst the player and their new club will both negotiate on new contract terms, or have earlier agreed on the personal terms. A transfer in association football differs from a trade in American, Canadian, and Australian sports, where teams essentially exchange players and their contracts, occasionally including cash as well. In some cases, football transfers operate in a similar way, as teams can exchange players as part of the deal. According to FIFA, from January to September 2018 there were 15,049 international transfers of male players with fees totalling US$7.1 billion, and 577 international transfers of female players for US$493,235.
Most transfer activity is conducted during the European summer transfer window (European pre-season window), between 1 July and 31 August each year (both dates inclusive), with slight variations of the start date and end dates for each domestic league. Some transfers also occur during the European winter transfer window of 1–31 January. The transfer deadline dates of the windows are solely reliant upon the country jurisdiction of the purchasing club, in order to register newly transferred players. Football clubs worldwide may sell the playing rights of a contracted player at any time to another club whose country's transfer window is still open. In addition, free agents (players who are not under contract) may be signed at any time outside the transfer windows.
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