Football Manager 2023: Biggest transfer budgets & richest clubs in FM23

Football Manager 2023 is finally here in its beta phase, and that means new saves are underway. If you want a leg up, here are the clubs with the biggest transfer budgets in your first season. 

Each year, when Sports Interactive drops the new installment of Football Manager, it can be a bit of a tricky one to pick which team you want to manage and, hopefully, lead to glory. 

You can try and change your favorite club’s fortunes, rebuild a sleeping giant, take on a project in the lower leagues, or plunk yourself right in at one of the world’s best and look to dominate for years on both the domestic and continental front.

Choosing to go the latter route will probably see you end up with a nice transfer budget to boot. While no team has the massive £200 million that Newcastle United had last year from the get-go, there are still some eyewatering budgets on offer. So, let’s get into them. 

FM23 biggest transfer budgets 

For all the talk of Newcastle being the richest club in the world because of their new Saudi Arabian owners, that’s not actually the case in FM23. They only have a modest budget of around £40 million, but that’s because they’ve spent big on the likes of Alexander Isak and Sven Botman. 

In fact, it’s Real Madrid that have the biggest starting transfer budget. After missing out on Kylian Mbappe, the Spanish giants have £103 million on offer from the get-go – and the squad doesn’t need too much work either. 

Despite spending big on Erling Haaland, Manchester City have around £102 million for you to play with. So, if you can’t find success with the game-breaking Norweigan striker, you can go out and spend to your heart’s content. 

FM23 richest clubs

In terms of the richest clubs overall, though, not all of these have a massive transfer budget in season one. Some aren’t extravagant sugar daddy spenders, but rather have big backers that are willing to write off the debt. 

These clubs are good choices for a long-term project because, if you manage the books well early on, you’re going to have a sizable budget in the years to come.

That also means that you’re more likely to be granted requests like stadium expansion, bigger scouting networks, more coaches, and the like as well. Though, if it all goes wrong, they won’t be afraid of sacking you quickly either.

So, that’s everything you need to know when it comes to having money in your pocket from the get-go in FM23.

It’s certainly not a route that everyone takes, but we won’t judge you for wanting a shiny new striker right away.