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More international football transfers were competed this summer than ever before, as an eye-watering £4.35 billion changed hands, according to FIFA, with agents pocketing almost 10 per cent of the total spend.

A record 9,717 players were on the move worldwide in the professional men’s game, with a further 417 new registrations pending, which will take the total comfortably beyond 10,000 for the first time.

The number of international transfers was up on the previous record set in 2019, when 9,092 players swapped clubs and there was also a record number of signings in the female game.

And with so much traffic between clubs, intermediaries cashed in, claiming 9.9 per cent of the transfer fees paid, which equates to a handy £430 million, compared to £371M, last year.

It was a particularly lucrative summer for agents. The fees they claimed during this transfer window where only slightly below the full-year figure in 2021, of £435M, and will further drive the world governing body's desire to bring in reforms to the transfer system.

The figures, included in FIFA’s International Transfer Snapshot Report, which covers the period June 1 to September 1, reveal how pervasive agents have become, with their share of total spending up from 6.1 per cent, a decade ago.