The closer it got to the final days, the hotter the summer transfer market in 2023. One of the reasons why it becomes exciting and unpredictable is that the tournament schedule usually starts a few weeks before the last day of the player market. When the teams have played the first official matches of the new season, negative problems are revealed and the addition of players becomes more urgent.
Not only buying, teams also know which players are no longer really needed by the club. These last days are also the time for stars who are no longer in the home team's plan to find a new destination, avoiding being on the bench for a few more months before the winter market.
When will the 2023 summer transfer market close? (local time)
For the English Premier League, the deadline is 11pm on September 1. It is also September 1, but in other countries and continents, the times will change a little. The same mark is only applied in La Liga in Spain. In France's Ligue 1, the time will be 10:00 p.m. on September 1. Meanwhile, Italy's Serie A will end very early, at 19:00 on September 1. However, that is not the earliest because in Germany's Bundesliga, this milestone will be at 5:00 p.m. on September 1.
For the MLS, the 2023 summer transfer market has started to close since August 2. It will reopen after more than a month on September 14. In some other countries in Europe and Asia, the end date will be much later such as Belgium (September 6), Mexico (September 13), Qatar (September 18) and the UAE (September 21).
When will the Saudi Arabian tournament close the summer transfer market in 2023?
FIFA has announced the last day of the summer player market in the Middle East country as September 20. After that, FIFA re-evaluated and gave the decision-making authority to the host country. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) announced that the deadline will be earlier, on September 7. Thus, the teams in the Saudi Pro League will have an additional week compared to the top European leagues to buy new players.
That is why although the UK market is close, there are still reports that Al-Ittihad is interested in Liverpool's Mohamed Salah. Jurgen Klopp said that at this time, the teams in Saudi Arabia are a real opponent, so competition will come very fiercely in the transfer market.
The race at the last minute
If Premier League teams want to buy and sell players at the last minute, they must reach an agreement between the two sides before 11pm on September 1. After that, they must send the minutes of agreement between the two sides to the tournament organizers and request an extension of time to complete the contract within a maximum of 2 hours.
If Premier League teams finalize deals with clubs in other countries late, they can only activate sales and cannot buy after 11pm on September 1. The condition is that players sold from a Premier League team that wants a successful transfer must complete all procedures before the deadline for the country they want to visit.
For players whose contracts have expired and become free, they can leave the team at any time.
January 1, 2024 is the time when the winter market is in the middle of the opening season and it will close on February 1, exactly 1 month later.
