Alexander Isak would cost any buying club £250m+ – Here’s why | OneFootball

Alexander Isak is making all the headlines, I don’t need to spell it out as to why.

As we have all known for a very long time, many clubs would love to have the Sweden international playing for them.

The past three years though Alexander Isak has been a Newcastle United striker who was unattainable.

No clarity from either player or club, however, the reality does appear to be that there is no guarantee now that the striker will kick off the new season in black and white.

For any transfer to happen, you need three things, Newcastle United willing/accepting they will sell, a club wanting to buy the striker, Alexander Isak wanting to go to that particular club.

The reality of course though is that Alexander Isak signed a six year contract in 2022 and that has three years still to go, which means absolutely no contract pressure on Newcastle United to sell.

So any club that thinks they will be able to pull off any sort of a relatively bargain transfer fee if buying the player, will be badly mistaken.

If Alexander Isak does leave, then the Newcastle United owners (and Eddie Howe) will expect any buying club to pay their full valuation and asking price. With the timing, only three weeks to go until the new season, that just makes it even more obvious that the NUFC owners aren’t going to be taken for mugs.

The £150m+ claimed valuation, by the Newcastle United owners, has been universally reported for a very long time.

However, as the football finance expert at The Athletic explains below, the true total financial commitment for Liverpool, Arsenal, Sunderland…or whoever, is in reality £250m+, rather than £150m+, if they want to buy Alexander Isak.

Can/would any club be willing to meet this Alexander Isak reality?

The Athletic report from Chris Weatherspoon on what Alexander Isak would actually cost, in total, for any buying club – 25 July 2025:

‘Alexander Isak could cost £250m to sign. This is why…

Newcastle hope any serious transfer fee conversation will start at the mind-boggling figure of £150million ($203m). To put that into context, it would make Isak the third most expensive footballer in history, behind Paris Saint-Germain recruits Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

Buying Isak for £150m is more like a £171m transfer once we add in some estimated agent fees and, if the buyer is a Premier League club, a four per cent transfer levy. From a profit and sustainability rules (PSR) perspective, spread over a five-year deal, those fees alone would add £33m-35m to a club’s costs.

Then there are Isak’s wages. His exact demands are unknown but given his status as one of the world’s leading players a range of £250,000 to £300,000 a week is far from unreasonable. At that level, the hit to a club would be £15m-£18m annually.

Essentially, it’s fair to say signing Isak would lump £50m in annual costs onto his new club — and that’s just from an accounting perspective. It’s often forgotten that clubs will need to pay the money in cash eventually and, over our hypothetical five-year deal, Isak would probably cost a new suitor more than £250m.’