Club Brugge, AZ and Salzburg shatter the transfer market's old order

For two decades, six clubs have dominated the flow of talent into Europe's top five leagues. Since the introduction of the summer transfer window in 2002, Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Porto, Benfica and Sporting CP have been the go-to shopping destinations for buyers from the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1. But the food chain is shifting — and three new names have muscled their way to the top of the menu.

Since 2020, Club Brugge, AZ and Red Bull Salzburg have consistently sold upcoming talents to the big five leagues. According to Transfermarkt, Austria's Salzburg have made the second-most summer sales (28) to those elite divisions during that period. Belgians Club Brugge, meanwhile, have received on average €17.2 million for their summer sales to the same clubs — the sixth-highest rate among clubs outside the top tiers to have made a minimum of five sales to Europe's leading leagues.

Club Brugge: find them cheap, develop them, sell them dear

Christos Tzolis' €40 million move to Arsenal this July follows Ardon Jashari's €36m sale to Milan in August 2025 and Igor Thiago's €33m transfer to Brentford the previous summer — a trend of Club Brugge unearthing talent, developing it while helping the team win trophies, and selling it on for a substantial profit. For a combined €23.5 million, the Belgian side bought Tzolis, Jashari and Thiago from Fortuna Dusseldorf, FC Luzern and Ludogorets respectively. The scale of the profit is a testament to their scouting and recruitment.

According to sporting director Maarten Dedobbeleer, Club Brugge seek out clear playing profiles that fit their eight football principles, which helps the scouting department as it tries to unearth new talent.

"It's perfectly fine with me when I look at the transfers some teams make and say, 'Yeah, we knew him, but we turned him down'. Not because he can't play in Belgium, but because he doesn't quite fit Club Brugge's profile," Dedobbeleer told De Klokke Podcast in June.

Scouts are instructed not to judge players on physical attributes alone, but also on their ability to perform specific tasks in relation to the Bruges club's playing style. For example, a short midfielder can still be a good header of the ball because of his leap or the timing of his jumps. Scouting, though, is only half of the coin: Club Brugge develop their own talent at academy level through Club NXT, with their under-23 team competing in the Belgian second division. This offers youth talents a taste of senior football before promotion to the first team.

Charles De Ketelaere, Chemsdine Talbi and Maxim De Cuyper are recent academy success stories. They helped Club Brugge triumph in Belgium's top flight before being sold to Milan, Sunderland and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively.

Another reason behind Club Brugge's rise as a shopping destination is their insistence on a "dominant" style of play, which is attractive to elite teams who want recruits capable of playing that way. Yet with so much talent flowing out the door, the club must maintain a strict succession plan to compete at the highest level themselves.

"In early February, we immediately held a meeting (after the winter transfer window had ended) where we decided that we always try to look two transfer windows ahead," said Dedobbeleer. "Of course, that gets very specific for the next transfer window. So in February, you're already looking at the upcoming (summer) transfer window, and based on what we know about our own players (we decide) who we would like to keep, who we will likely have to say goodbye to, or who we want to say goodbye to."

AZ Alkmaar: youth development is the core business

As in Bruges, succession planning is vital to the operations in Salzburg and in Alkmaar, Dutch side AZ's home city. Young talents who join the first team may end up being sold into the top five European leagues, which further emphasises the importance of constantly developing more players.

"There is a clear methodology running through our academy, from the younger age groups through the middle phase and into the older age groups, ultimately leading to Jong AZ — our second team that plays in the second tier of Dutch football — and the AZ first team," Paul Brandenburg, AZ's academy director, tells The Athletic. "As players progress, the emphasis gradually shifts from 'learning how to win' to 'having to win'."

From AZ Under-17s onwards, international experience forms part of the programme, with the UEFA Youth League deemed extremely valuable. "We approach those campaigns in the same way the first team approaches European fixtures: travelling, playing several matches in a short period of time and deliberately learning to deal with uncomfortable situations. In this way, players gradually expand their comfort zone," Brandenburg says.

AZ's academy has been the cornerstone of the club in recent years. Six of its graduates were in the starting line-up when the first team lifted the Dutch Cup last season, thrashing NEC Nijmegen 5-1 in the final. Young players are given opportunities in the first team; it is an integral part of the club's sporting and economic model, with the academy and senior squad sharing a training complex to allow a constant exchange of knowledge.

The academy's success has also made the club a trusted destination in the market. Ernest Poku, Tijjani Reijnders (signed at 19 from fellow Dutch side PEC Zwolle) and Teun Koopmeiners progressed from the academy to the first team before being sold to Bayer Leverkusen, Milan and Atalanta respectively.

"We have a clear understanding of the level we want our players to reach and what it takes to get them there. Players need to be good enough not only for our first team, but also to cope with playing several matches a week at a high level," Brandenburg says. "Our foundation is regional. We want to give players from our own area a pathway into professional football. Only when we cannot find certain player profiles within the region do we start looking further afield."

Players from other countries are deliberately brought in at a young age. Initially, scouted players live with a host family, then move into supported accommodation and eventually live independently, while mentors help them with the language, the culture and finding their place within the group. Young talents can first spend two years in AZ's "football school", continuing to live at home while training once a week under the club's guidance.

"After two years, we know far more about them than we could ever learn from a handful of scouting visits," adds Brandenburg. "We understand their physical and cognitive qualities, functional technique, game intelligence, attitude and home environment, and above all their ability to learn and their intrinsic motivation."

As Brandenburg puts it, "youth development is the core business of AZ" — and since 2010, the average age of AZ's summer sales to the top five European leagues has never risen above 26.

Red Bull Salzburg: succession as a way of life

The focus on the academy is also shared by Salzburg, whose sporting director Marcus Mann tells The Athletic: "Our preferred scenario is to bring the players into the academy at a young age, from where they can then make the step up to FC Red Bull Salzburg. Our aim is for around two-thirds of players to follow this route."

Salzburg's goal is to use their academy and scouting at youth levels to strengthen the first team, but if good offers come in for their players, they are "happy to take them".

"We have a state-of-the-art academy, generally work with players on an individual basis and allow them to gain playing time at a relatively high level, both nationally and internationally, at a young age," says Mann. "That is something many clubs appreciate and recognise, which is why we continue to be active in the transfer market."

Summer sales to RB Leipzig, with whom Salzburg share an obvious connection, only account for 19 per cent of their business since 2016 — Leipzig's first season in the Bundesliga. Salzburg are prepared to lose their top talents but do their best to ensure the first team remains unaffected.

"This is a desirable scenario, and we are pleased about it because it confirms our path," Mann tells The Athletic. "We also prepare for it at an early stage by ideally already having the successors with us in the academy or at our cooperation club, FC Liefering."

When striker Patson Daka moved to Leicester City in the summer of 2021, an 18-year-old named Benjamin Sesko was brought back from Liefering — effectively Salzburg's reserve team, who play in the second tier of Austrian football — to join the first team. "We always try to keep a close eye on talent and sign the right players early enough so that we are prepared when departures occur," Mann adds.

Brenden Aaronson joined from Philadelphia Union of MLS in January 2021 and played a vital role in Salzburg securing a domestic double in 2020-21 and 2021-22, before being sold to Leeds United for a profit in the summer of 2022.

A new food chain takes shape

Salzburg, AZ and Club Brugge have broken the existing oligopoly of clubs exporting players into the top five European leagues. The hard part, for all three, is maintaining their place in the food chain — which means the scouting networks, academy pathways and two-window-ahead succession planning that got them here will now have to keep working, season after season.