The pool of talent available each summer without paying a transfer fee has grown as top players have gotten more comfortable with allowing their contracts to run down or expire.
Even if Kylian Mbappe's future has been decided, Paul Pogba, Paulo Dybala, Ousmane Dembele, and Christian Eriksen are still on the lookout for new clubs. When Franck Kessie leaves AC Milan as a free agent, he has already decided to join Barcelona. Ajax midfielder Andre Onana is set to join Inter Milan in a similar trade.
The smorgasbord of talent set to be available next summer will, if anything, be even more sumptuous.
While a year is a long time in football, and new contract extensions and sales will saturate this list, the breadth of players that could be available now is incredible.
After the 2022-23 season, both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will be free agents, which, even at their combined age of 71, is a difficult statement to type.
Furthermore, the all-conquering Liverpool forward line of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Roberto Firmino would be nearing the conclusion of their current contracts, with Salah declaring on Wednesday: "I'm definitely staying next season."
It's still uncertain whether Salah will extend his contract at Anfield. Liverpool want to keep him, and the Egypt international insists he wants to stay, but contract talks have so far failed to reach an agreement. Following Saturday's Champions League final against Real Madrid, talks with Salah's agent will restart.
Liverpool are hoping to reach an agreement so that the 29-year-old (who turns 30 on June 15) does not end up like Bayern Munich's Serge Gnabry, Barcelona's Memphis Depay, and Real Madrid's Toni Kroos, Karim Benzema, and Marco Asensio, who will all be available for nothing in the summer of 2023. Robert Lewandowski would be on this list if he wasn't so adamant about leaving Bayern this season.
When a contract's clock is ticking — especially when a player's contract is coming to an end — the power tends to shift in their favor, and their representation may feel empowered to ask for more money to sign a new contract.
There is, however, an off-the-peg answer for practically every situation imaginable among those slightly older than those three:
Atletico Madrid's Jan Oblak, Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly, Inter Milan's Milan Skriniar, Juventus' Adrien Rabiot, RB Leipzig's Konrad Laimer, Eintracht Frankfurt's Evan Ndicka, Valencia's Goncalo Guedes, Napoli's Fabian Ruiz, Valencia's Jose Gaya, Valencia's Carlos Soler, PSG's Thilo Kehrer, Bo That is by no means an exhaustive list.
There are a number of intriguing scenarios in the Premier League alone, some of which will be settled before current contracts expire, and others which will not.
What the agent and the club both know is that replacing the departing player will cost the player's current employers a large sum of money, assuming the departing player is replaceable. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that anybody they sign will be as trustworthy as their predecessor. Varied clubs, on the other hand, take very different approaches to this.
The age profile of some of the players nearing the end of their contracts is particularly interesting.
Gone are the days when this market was restricted to players who were past their prime or who had experienced injury or form losses.
Some of Europe's brightest emerging talents will be available in a select circumstances.
Gavi's contract with Barcelona is set to end in 2023, when he will be 18 years old. Ryan Gravenberch's Ajax contract is also in jeopardy. Houssem Aouar, who has long been a target for English clubs, has yet to renew his contract with boyhood club Lyon, which is set to expire on the day he turns 25.
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