A free agent is a player whose contract has run out, and some of the biggest moves in football have happened that way. In the summer of 2021, Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos both became free agents when their contracts at Barcelona and Real Madrid expired. Both joined Paris Saint-Germain without a transfer fee. Three years later, Kylian Mbappé left PSG for Real Madrid the same way.

Here is what a free agent is, how clubs sign one, and how the Bosman ruling of 1995 made it possible.

What is a free agent in football?

A free agent in football is a player who is not under contract with any club. He/she is allowed to join any team without the need for any transfer fee. Football players become free agents when their contract with their clubs runs out and they are not offered or refuse to sign a renewed deal. Then there are terminations as well. Both clubs and the players can decide to terminate their contract, which in turn makes the player a free agent.

Messi is the best-known example. His Barcelona contract ran out on 30 June 2021, the club could not register a new one under LaLiga’s spending rules, and he joined PSG on 10 August 2021. The full story is in our explainer on why Messi left Barcelona.

Becoming a free agent doesn’t necessarily mean that the player can be signed on the cheap though. There are payments like the agent’s fee and the player’s signing-on bonus that still need to be paid.

How are free agents signed?

There are two basic ways to approach a free agent. One is to contact the player’s camp once the deal with the existing club has run out. The other is a pre-contract agreement. Under Article 18.3 of FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, a player is free to sign a contract with another club once his current contract has expired or is due to expire within six months.

This gives the player leverage to get a better deal, either from his current club or from the new one. One of the best-known examples is Robert Lewandowski’s move from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich. In January 2014, Bayern confirmed that he had signed a pre-contract agreement. He saw out his Dortmund contract until the end of the 2013-14 season and then joined Bayern on a free transfer.

How Bosman ruling changed football transfers

Until 1995, signing a free agent was not as common as it is now. Before the Bosman ruling, a club could still demand a transfer fee for a player whose contract had expired, and the player could not move until it was paid. So even an out-of-contract player usually cost money.

All that, however, changed when Belgian midfielder Jean-Marc Bosman won a five-year legal battle against RFC Liege which changed the face of the football transfer market.

In 1990, Bosman’s contract with RFC Liège was ending, and the French club USL Dunkerque wanted to sign him. Liège demanded a transfer fee that Dunkerque would not pay, so the move collapsed. Bosman stayed at Liège on wages cut by 70 per cent.

Bosman took Liège, the Belgian FA and UEFA to court, and the case reached the European Court of Justice. On 15 December 1995, after five years, the court ruled in his favour. Players moving between clubs in the European Union became entitled to a free transfer once their contract expired. The same judgment also stopped leagues from limiting the number of players from other EU countries a club could field.

This gave players more power over clubs as they could demand higher wages.

That shift is also why a player can now sign a pre-contract with a new club in the last six months of his deal.

Since then, several high-profile players have moved on free transfers, including Steve McManaman (Liverpool to Real Madrid, 1999), Sol Campbell (Tottenham to Arsenal, 2001), Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich to Chelsea, 2006), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan to Juventus, 2011) and Paul Pogba (Manchester United to Juventus, 2022).

Famous free transfers of the 2020s

The summer of 2021 was the biggest free-agent window in years. Real Madrid signed David Alaba from Bayern Munich, and Barcelona brought in Sergio Agüero and Memphis Depay. PSG signed four players out of contract: Georginio Wijnaldum, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Lionel Messi.

The biggest since then came in 2024. Kylian Mbappé ran down his PSG contract and joined Real Madrid when it expired on 30 June 2024, without a transfer fee. For how that 2021 market looked at the time, see our list of free agents from 2021-22.

Featured photo: AFP / Pau Barrena