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Paris - England and Spain have led a record breaking summer transfer market by Europe's big five leagues worth well over $2bn with more big deals looming before the window closes on Monday.
Radamel Falcao and Arturo Vidal are among the big names and Real Madrid and Manchester United in the big clubs touted for major deals on the final day of the transfer window when another $250m of business could be done.
"This summer transfer window is one of records," said Dan Jones of the Deloitte consultancy's Sports Business Group.
He highlighted that in the last two summer windows more than 20% of English Premier League clubs' spending occurred on deadline day.
"There is still potential for a significant increase" in the record breaking spending already seen, he said.
Spending
FIFA's transfer monitoring system said that by Sunday, $2.09bn had been spent by top clubs in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, breaking last year's record of $2.02bn.
It said that England's Premier League accounted for more than 43% of the big five's spending, followed by Spain on more than 25% and Germany on about 10%. Italy and France follow, with spending down in both in Serie A and Ligue 1.
According to Deloitte's figures, more than $1.2bn had been spent by England's 20 Premier League clubs from 9 June to Friday. That is already more than $100m more than last year.
British media said the figure had risen to nearly $750m by Sunday, helped by Manchester United's purchase of Danny Blind from Ajax Amsterdam.
Manchester United have been Europe's top spenders, laying out more than $240m to buy Blind, Angel di Maria from Real Madrid for $59 million, Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo. They have been linked with Vidal and other names before the transfer window closes on Monday evening.
Splurge
Liverpool have also spent more than $115m, mainly to buy Mario Balotelli, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren.
Chelsea have laid out more than $75m (including Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa) and Arsenal more than $62m.
English clubs have spent about $300m on Spanish players. But, according to FIFA, Spain's current spending is closing on $600m and already three times higher than last year's pre-season transfer window. A spending splurge by Real Madrid and Barcelona has accounted for the buying.
Barcelona paid Liverpool more than $125m for Luis Suarez, while Real Madrid spent a reported $108m on Monaco's James Rodriguez and more than $35m on German World Cup midfielder Toni Kroos.
But after losing Xabi Alonso to Bayern Munich, Real are still in market for a big signing, according to club officials.
