As top players have become more comfortable with leaving their contracts to run down or expire, the pool of talent accessible each summer without paying a transfer fee has risen.
Even if Kylian Mbappe's future is set, Paul Pogba, Paulo Dybala, Ousmane Dembele, and Christian Eriksen are still looking for new teams. Franck Kessie has already chosen to join Barcelona when he becomes a free agent after leaving AC Milan. Andre Onana, an Ajax midfielder, is likely to join Inter Milan in a similar deal.
If anything, the feast of talent set to be available next summer will be even more lavish.
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.
Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will be free agents after the 2022-23 season, which is a difficult sentence to type, even at their combined age of 71.
Furthermore, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Roberto Firmino, Liverpool's all-conquering forward line, would be nearing the end of their current contracts, with Salah announcing on Wednesday: "I'm definitely staying next season."
Salah's contract extension at Anfield is still up in the air. Liverpool want to keep him, and the Egypt international is adamant that he wants to stay, but contract talks have so far fallen through. Salah's agent will resume discussions after Saturday's Champions League final against Real Madrid.
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.
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