On 21 August 2026, Fabrizio Romano reported that Manchester United's deal for Carlos Baleba was £65m plus £5m in add-ons. The same day, David Ornstein put it at £70m including bonuses.
Two of the most reliable reporters in the sport, one transfer, two numbers. Neither made a mistake.
What an add-on is
An add-on is a payment on top of the guaranteed fee that is only made if something specific happens.
The guaranteed fee is owed whatever follows. The add-on is owed only on a trigger, and if the trigger never fires the money is never paid.
So every transfer with add-ons has two true fees: the one certain to be paid, and the one paid if everything in the contract comes true. Both get printed, which is where the confusion starts.
What the triggers usually are
Four families cover most of them.
Appearances. The most common by distance. A payment at 25 appearances, another at 50, often with a definition of what counts as an appearance that runs to a paragraph.
Team achievement. The buying club qualifying for the Champions League, winning a domestic trophy, avoiding relegation.
Individual achievement. Goals, assists, a call-up, an award.
Onward events. A payment triggered by a future sale, which shades into sell-on territory and is often written as a separate clause.
The selling club argues for triggers that are likely. The buying club argues for triggers that are only reached if the player has been worth the money. That negotiation is the whole game, and it is why a deal can hang on the difference between 20 and 30 appearances.
Why clubs like them
For the buyer, add-ons move risk onto the future and out of this year's accounts. Money that has not been triggered is not yet a cost, which matters under profit and sustainability rules where the annual charge is what is measured.
For the seller, add-ons are how the gap between two valuations gets closed. A club that wants £70m and is being offered £60m can accept £60m guaranteed plus £10m in triggers, announce £70m, and be telling the truth about the ceiling.
That is worth saying plainly: add-ons let both clubs report the number they wanted. The buyer briefs the guaranteed fee, the seller briefs the maximum, and both are accurate.
How this desk handles it
The rule here is to lead on the highest fee a named source printed, and never to invent or round one up.
So the Baleba deal is recorded as up to £70m, attributed, with the structure named: £65m guaranteed plus £5m in add-ons per Fabrizio Romano, £70m including bonuses per David Ornstein, with Brighton and Hove Albion also negotiating a sell-on clause per Ornstein. Two independent named reporters, one total, no club announcement of the breakdown.
The alternative, picking one number and presenting it flat, produces an archive that contradicts itself the moment a trigger fires or fails.
Why the reported total is usually optimistic
Add-ons are conditional, and conditions fail. Players get injured, get sold early, do not play 50 games, or arrive at a club that misses the Champions League.
A significant share of the add-on money written into transfer agreements is never paid. That is not a scandal, it is the mechanism working: the buyer only pays the top price if the player delivers the thing the top price assumed.
Which is why a club record fee is nearly always the ceiling, and the number that eventually leaves the bank account is nearly always lower.
The one-line version
The guaranteed fee is the price. The add-ons are the argument about what the player might become, priced and postponed.
Sources: Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein, 21 August 2026, on the structure of the Carlos Baleba transfer, as recorded in this archive's transfer desk entry of 22 August 2026; this archive's explainer on how transfer fees are actually paid.