The midfielder has made an ideal start to life at City, winning his opening three matches and providing an assist on his Champions League debut against Porto. His transfer from Chelsea, valued between €145 million and €146 million, became the most expensive in Premier League history, a record Fernández had already set once before when his move from Benfica to Chelsea broke the English league's transfer record in 2023.
Under FIFA's training compensation mechanism, River Plate are entitled to roughly 3.37% of the fee for Manchester City's signing of Fernández, working out at approximately €4.92 million, to be paid progressively as City settle the transfer in instalments. Including previous transfers, Fernández's career moves have now generated an estimated €57.12 million for the Argentine club.
The chain began in 2022, when River sold Fernández to Benfica for €18 million while retaining 25% of any future sell-on value, a decision that paid off handsomely when Benfica sold him to Chelsea for €121 million, banking River a further €30.25 million on top of standard solidarity payments.
Fernández's rise illustrates the strength of River's youth academy, recognised by football's research body CIES as one of the best in the world and the leading academy in the Americas. Between the 2005-06 and 2024-25 seasons, River developed more players who went on to feature in Europe's five major leagues than any other club on the continent.
Behind those numbers lies a development system that combines technical, tactical and physical training with psychology, nutrition, neuroscience and education, with the club's Casa River and RiverDAR programmes forming the backbone of an academy that continues to convert talent into both sporting and financial value - with Fernández one of its most striking recent examples.
Fernández's move to Manchester City in the summer reunited him with a host of familiar faces from Argentine and South American football already at the club, and he wasted little time settling into Enzo Maresca's side, starting in each of City's opening matches.
His importance to River's finances now rivals his importance on the pitch, with the midfielder's transfer fees alone accounting for a significant share of the solidarity income generated by any South American academy product in recent football history.