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The Premier League’s summer transfer window came to a spectacular conclusion on September 1. A record amount was spent — £3.5billion ($4.7nn) to be exact — and the British transfer record was broken in a spending spree the like of which English football has never before experienced.

While there will be no more transfers until January, clubs can still bolster their squads or take a risk on a player with a high upside by acquiring a free agent. No fee will be required to sign these players, but wage demands can be a stumbling block.

So here is The Athletic’s XI of the free agents currently available. Many have Premier League experience and will surely want another shot at the English top flight. Regardless, it will be intriguing where they play next.

Goalkeeper

Neto

Age: 37
Previous club: Botafogo

A potentially reliable and experienced backup goalkeeper option for the teams competing across various fronts this season. The Brazilian shot-stopper was Bournemouth’s No 1 for two seasons before joining Arsenal in 2024 as understudy to David Raya. He has 13 Premier League clean sheets to his name in 61 appearances.

Defenders

Dani Carvajal

Age: 34
Previous club: Real Madrid

How about securing a serial winner for your ranks? A six-time Champions League winner, Carvajal has won more European Cups than every club in the Premier League besides Liverpool.

A Real Madrid academy graduate who made 451 appearances for the club, Carvajal struggled with injuries in recent seasons, suffering a cruciate ligament tear in October 2024 and another serious knee injury the following year. But he would still bring a leading presence into the dressing room.

Chris Smalling

Age: 36
Previous club: Al Fayha

An unlikely career path from Maidstone United to Fulham to Manchester United put Smalling on the map. He played 323 games for Manchester United across 10 years before moving to Roma and, in 2024, on to Al-Fayha.

Smalling is one of Jose Mourinho’s most used players having played under him at Manchester United and Roma.

“I know my body now better than when I was 26 and that’s shown in the games I’m playing,” he told BBC Sport last month.

Chris Smalling left Al-Fayha at the end of last season (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)

David Alaba

Age: 34
Previous club: Real Madrid

Alaba left Real Madrid this summer after five years at the club, winning two La Liga and Champions League titles.

Over his career, he has had the versatility to play centre-back, left-back and as a holding midfielder under managers such as Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti.

Alaba suffered various injuries at Madrid, including a ruptured ACL in December 2023 that kept him out for over a year. He has only started nine league games over the last two seasons, but featured in every game for Austria as his nation’s captain at the 2026 World Cup.

David Alaba featured for Austria at the summer’s World Cup (Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)

Oleksandr Zinchenko

Age: 29
Previous club: Ajax

At Manchester City, Zinchenko was in some of Guardiola’s best teams as he won four Premier League titles and an FA Cup.

Joining Arsenal in 2022, he was part of the transition to a title-challenging side before being phased out following some underwhelming performances in favour of players boasting more physical profiles.

He has had injury problems since leaving Arsenal, picking up a season-ending knee injury in his second game for Ajax last season.

Oleksandr Zinchenko played for Manchester City, Arsenal and on loan at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Midfielders

Tanguy Ndombele

Age: 29
Previous club: OGC Nice

Ndombele attracted considerable hype after Tottenham broke their club record to sign him from Lyon for £55million in 2019.

His availability and form were never consistent, in part due to injuries, and he was branded a flop, leading Spurs to loan him back to Lyon, Napoli (where he won a Scudetto) and Galatasaray before mutually agreeing to terminate his contract in 2024.

The Frenchman took a pay cut to join Nice and started the 2024-25 season well, but injuries again limited his availability over the last two seasons.

Tanguy Ndombele has endured injury issues (Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images)

Yves Bissouma

Age: 30
Previous club: Tottenham Hotspur

Bissouma has made 200 Premier League appearances over eight years with Brighton and Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur. Last season he featured in 11 top-flight games for Spurs.

The midfielder also captained Mali as they reached the AFCON 2026 quarter-finals, but received a red card as they lost 1-0 to Senegal.

He was disciplined at Spurs for off-pitch behaviour, and persistent lateness meant he missed out on the UEFA Super Cup squad last year. But, when fit and firing, he is a presence in midfield.

Yves Bissouma in his Tottenham Hotspur days (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Paul Pogba

Age: 33
Previous club: Monaco

At the height of his career, Pogba was instrumental in France’s World Cup-winning team of 2018. His passing range and abilities were majestic and he once supplied four assists in one game for Manchester United in 2021.

His career was put on hold in 2024 when he received a four-year doping ban, a sanction later reduced to 18 months.

His return to football came at Monaco, where he made six appearances in Ligue 1 last season. A series of fitness setbacks resulted in his contract being mutually terminated a year early.

Paul Pogba returned to football with AS Monaco last season (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

Forwards

Jadon Sancho

Age: 26
Previous club: Aston Villa (on loan from Manchester United)

Sancho was a star at Borussia Dortmund. In his best season, 2019-20, he registered 17 goals and 16 assists in the Bundesliga. That staggering form persuaded Manchester United to pay Dortmund £73million for the winger.

After a slow start, loan moves back to Dortmund, Chelsea and Aston Villa have not seen him fulfil his potential, despite being part of UEFA Conference League and Europa League-winning campaigns.

Jadon Sancho won the Europa League with Aston Villa last season (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Karim Benzema

Age: 38
Previous club: Al Hilal

When Benzema retires, football will look back on him as one of the greatest strikers in a generation.

He scored 354 goals in 648 games for Real Madrid between 2009 and 2023, playing alongside fellow superstars Cristiano Ronaldo, Vinicius Junior, Eden Hazard and Gareth Bale.

Since 2023, he has played in Saudi Arabia, first for Al Ittihad and last season at Al Hilal, where he has been scoring at a decent rate. Last season he scored 10 goals in 12 league games, but his contract was mutually terminated last month after the arrival of Ollie Watkins.

Karim Benzema has been a prolific striker throughout his career (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)

Anthony Martial

Age: 30
Previous club: Monterrey

Remember when Martial took the Premier League by storm? After Manchester United signed him from Monaco in 2015 for £36million and he scored on his debut against Liverpool, he looked destined to be a top player.

Things have not exactly turned out that way since. After leaving Manchester in 2024, he has had a season with AEK Athens and another with Monterrey in Mexico, where he scored one league goal in 17 matches.

Free Agent XI substitutes:

Tyrell Malacia (27; previous club: Manchester United), Raphael Guerreiro (32; previous club: Bayern Munich), Renato Sanches (29, previous club: Paris Saint-Germain), Raheem Sterling (31, previous club: Feyenoord), Wilfried Zaha (33, previous club: Galatasaray), Riyad Mahrez (35, previous club: Al Ahli), Jamie Vardy (39, previous club: Cremonese)