(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-31 17:31

But Barca were outspent by Atletico Madrid, who were the second highest spenders in building another new squad including Diego Forlan, Simao Sabrosa, Luis Garcia and Jose Antonio Reyes.

Atletico's outlay was bankrolled in part by the 36 million euros Liverpool paid for Fernando Torres in what was by far the biggest signing in the English club's history.

FOREIGN MONEY

Liverpool are now American-owned and foreign investors at other Premier League clubs helped take the pre-season spending in England to over 350 million pounds ($706.1 million).

For all that cash, there were not all that many eye-catching deals, however.

Manchester United paid Bayern Munich 25 million euros for Owen Hargreaves and finally got their man in Carlos Tevez, while Chelsea bought Florent Malouda from Chelsea for 21 million. Torres apart, though, there are few new star names.

Lyon invested the Malouda money on Kader Keita from Lille and Italian World Cup winner Fabio Grosso from Inter Milan.

Marseille were also flush from the Ribery deal and they made permanent Djibril Cisse's loan move from Liverpool and bought Karim Ziani from Sochaux for a total of 16 million euros.

Italy was if anything quieter than France, although Inter Milan added to their vast squad with defender Cristian Chivu from AS Roma and Honduran striker David Suazo from Cagliari.

AC Milan unsuccessfully tried to hijack the Suazo deal at the last minute but did eventually buy Brazilian teenager Pato from Internacional for 22 million euros and bring former Roma and Juve midfielder Emerson back to Italy from Real Madrid.

Juve were always going to spend big on their return to Serie A after their match-fixing demotion but the fact that workmanlike Lyon midfielder Tiago was their top buy at 13 million euros surprised many.

The main issue in Italy has been the exodus from Serie A, with World Cup winners Toni and Grosso leaving, Reggina striker Rolando Bianchi choosing Manchester City and Cristiano Lucarelli quitting Livorno for Shakhtar Donetsk.

Lucarelli was not the only big signing made by Shakhtar. Backed by the billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, they have spent 60 million euros to bring players like Ilsinho and Willian of Brazil and Mexico midfielder Neri Castillo to Ukraine.

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