Darwin Nunez scored his first goal in the English premier league There is a time and a place for this. Football is a business that involves making money. Some clubs in Europe are better at this than others. Some of the top teams have made a profit from the exits of their players. It usually means bringing in an unknown in for a cheap transfer fee, developing them, moving them on for a long time, and then starting the cycle again. While it's possible to make a profit on a world-class star, the majority of successful dealings for clubs come with lower-profile players. The big clubs don't usually benefit in the short term as they have to pay more to land their targets. Over the last 12 years, Transfermarkt has compiled a list of the sides who have made the most money in the transfer market. The record arrival was 34m.
Record departure: €75m - Darwin Nunez (Liverpool)Club OUT IN Profit Benfica €566.3m €1.3bn €690.6m FC Porto €497.5m €950.2m €452.7m Lille €359.3m €755.8m €396.5m Ajax €407.5m €803.2m €395.6m Salzburg €197.6m €540.1m €342.5m Sporting €323.9m €594.6m €270.7m Udinese €308.5m €567.7m €259.2m Lyon €416.3m €659.7m €243.4m Braga €80.7m €295.6m €214.9m Genoa €467.9m €665.1m €197.3m 
BENFICA
Over the past two decades, Benfica have generated more than one billion dollars in transfer income, making them the most supported club in Portugal.
Under the guidance of some of the top youth coaches in Europe, Benfica has produced some of the best young players for decades. Benfica have an excellent scouting network in Argentina and Brazil that has allowed them to bring players like David Luiz and Angel Di Maria.
Portuguese clubs benefit from a climate, culture and style of football not far removed from South America, which allows for a smooth transition for players crossing the Atlantic. Being a top team in a relatively wage-modest country (with few restrictions on signing foreign players) allows Benfica to offer salaries for foreign players at significantly lower terms than, for instance, a Brazilian talent would expect at a club of the same stature in Italy or Germany.
They are able to develop talents from smaller European countries. Three years later, after returning to the club for 25m, Matic, Oblak, and Lindelof all moved on to bigger and better things. In the past two years, Benfica made a 41m profit when they found Darwin's talent at Spanish side Almeria, and this summer they made a 75m profit when he left.
Benfica and FC Porto both have the ability to position themselves as a "boutique" club who only enter and exit transfers on their terms.
The record arrival is 20m.
Record departure: €50m - Eder Militao (Real Madrid)
Since 2000-01, the Portuguese champions have won 12 titles in a league with few genuine competitors, and have also played in the European Championship.
Porto has been a major player in the transfer market since 2004, when they signed two players for a combined 50m. With Pinto da Costa providing stability and loyalty to the club's model of signing cheaply, developing, moving on and reinvesting, Porto have made maximum use of their ability to pick excellent head coaches. Porto has strong links to South America and a representative appears to be present wherever one goes on the scouting circuit.
This relationship has allowed Porto to bring in the likes of Radamel Falcao from River Plate for 5m and Eder Militao from Sao Paolo for 7m.
When it comes to doing business in new markets that have come and gone, Porto have never spent more than 20m and have been smart when it comes to doing business in Russia. They have a fantastic academy, as shown by the fact that three of them have brought in over 100 million dollars.
There was a record arrival of 31.3m.
Record departure: €86m - Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona)
Having ruled over one of the most prestigious academies in European football for decades, the Dutch club still enjoy the position of being as close as one can come to the epitome of an ideology driven club. The result of years of strategical work, commonly shared principles and methodology anchored from youth development through to senior level, has resulted in the supply of world-class footballers who have played key roles in some of the top clubs in the world.
There is no doubt in the critics' minds that the quality of the player is high. Ryan Gravenberch, Nicolas Tagliafi and Lisandro Martinez are just a few of the players who left for pastures new this summer.
The jewels in the academy crown of recent years have been De Jong, de Ligt, and van de Beek, but they can also sign for other clubs.
The club may not be the best place to launch a foreign player due to the tighter restrictions over registration in the Netherlands.
Jonathan David arrived at a record 27 million dollars.
Record departure: €80m - Nicolas Pepe (Arsenal)
Lille have recently emerged as an arena for high-end player transfers due to the fact that they are arguably the best provider of underestimated Ligue 1 talent to the premier league over the past decade.
A higher-profile deal came when Victor Osimhen secured a 75m move to Napoli, though the payment was split over his five-year contract.
In this summer's deals, 100m has been raised from deals such as: Amadou Onana (36m toEverton), Renato Sanches (15m to Paris Saint-Germain), and Zelki Celik. Lille have always been a popular destination for scouts due to their sporting and transfer success.
Lille have been able to retain good relations with Premier League clubs via previous dealings or agents and have remained competitive despite the fact that the club changed hands as a result of the collapse of the Ligue 1 media deal two years ago.
Botman replacing Gabriel and Jonathan David taking over from Osimhen gave an idea of how a club can remain competitive even when they often move on their stars for a profit.
Lucas Gourna-Douath arrived at a record 13 million dollars.
Record departure: €32.9m - Brenden Aaronson (Leeds)
Over the past 10 years, the Austrian champion has excelled in the transfer market, once being the starting point of what is now a worldwide network of clubs. The Austrian league has had a number of top-class young players arrive looking to get their feet wet before moving on to bigger things.
Patson Daka is worth 30m, while Sadio Mane is worth 23m, and Erling Haaland is worth 20m. Their incoming record is 13m.
The entire recruitment team is managed according to clear principles of what represents the makeup of an ideal recruit: physical strength, explosive pace and power, stamina suitable for pressing, and an aggressive playing style, which all rank highly on the list to narrow down the search for potential stars.
It's important for prospective signings to know that they're affiliated with a club in the top tier of the German league. In the last five years, more than 20 players have taken that route, including Naby Keita (30m), Dominik Szoboszlai (22m), Amadou Haidara (19m), Dayot Upamecano (18.5m) and others. Salzburg may not be able to make a lot of money when Leipzig move on to bigger clubs, but the Austrian side have done a good job of feeding their talent and have certainly benefited. They are now being used as a scouting location for clubs that want to play the same style of football.
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