Manchester United are hoping to secure a significant amount of cash from sell-on clauses this summer as Rúben Amorim eyes extra funding.
In recent seasons, Manchester United has sold several of their Academy players and included sell-on clauses in their transfers.
Players such as Alvaro Careras, Mason Greenwood, and Anthony Elanga all have sell-on clauses with varying percentages, in the hope that the club can gain further fees.
Selling Academy graduates has become an unexpected incentive at Premier League clubs, because the fee that any club sells an Academy graduate for counts as ‘pure profit’ on their Profit and Sustainability Regulation (PSR) books.
While profit from selling other players is calculated as the total agreed fee received for a player minus the amount left to be amortised over their initial contract, the total fee received from the sale of any Academy player is all counted as profit, as the club did not spend any significant amount to bring them into the first-team them.
Nuanse in Elanga’s sell-on fee could cost United £2m
News broke earlier this week that Newcastle are keen on signing Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest this summer, and had tabled a bid of around £55 million. According to MailSport’s Nathan Salt, United’s sell-on clause is approximately 20% of the profit.
In theory, United would earn around £8 million from the sale, as Forest signed Elanga from United for £15 million in 2023, so a £55 million fee would equate to around £40 million in profit.
However, a fresh report from Manchester World’s Nathan Fay has explained that a slightly bizarre caveat in United’s sell-on clause is that the club will only earn the profit off the initial fee paid to Forest, and that it is closer to around 15%.
Although all transfers have a total agreed value, they are often paid in instalments. One example is United’s £62.5 million agreed fee for Matheus Cunha – this summer, United have only needed to pay £20.8 million, with a further two instalments due over the next few seasons.
According to Fay, this would result in United earning around £6 million from the deal, £2 million less than what would have been expected otherwise.
United still set for £12.5 million windfall
Despite potentially losing out on this extra £2 million, United are still set to receive around £12.5 million from two sell-on clauses this summer.
Aside from the roughly £6 million they could see for Elanga, United are expected to see another £6.5 million from the sale of Alvaro Carreras from Benfica to Real Madrid.
United inserted a 20% sell-on clause in Carreras’ contract at Benfica when he signed for the Portuguese club in 2024, with the 20% being any amount of profit they earn above £5 million.
Carreras is close to finalising a move to Real Madrid this summer, and Los Blancos are expected to trigger this £38 million release clause. Should this happen, United will earn a further £6.5 million on top of the £6 million likely to be received from Elanga’s sale.
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