Free agents: The three best unattached players available in each position

The January transfer window has closed but Premier League clubs could still be on the lookout for free agents that could fill gaps in their squad on the cheap.

Free agents can sign for a new team at any time, so here’s a summary of some notable free agents available now. We’ve chosen five per position, but would you want to sign any of them for your club?

Free agent goalkeepers

Salvatore Sirigu

• Last club: Palermo
• Salary: £10,000 per week
• Age: 39
• Career appearances: 544

Sirigu returned to the first club of his career, Palermo, for the 2024-25 season in Serie B.

Best known for his spell with PSG more than a decade ago, Sirigu was a backup for Palermo but hasn’t indicated if he’ll be retiring yet.

Luigi Sepe

• Last club: Salernitana
• Salary: £18,000 per week
• Age: 34
• Career appearances: 292

Sepe has spent his whole career in Italy, most recently in Serie B with Salernitana but predominantly in the top tier with the likes of Parma and Empoli.

Vicente Guaita

• Last club: Parma
• Salary: £12,000 per week
• Age: 39
• Career appearances: 518

Former Crystal Palace keeper Guaita never played for Parma during his short spell there after previously playing for Celta after his departure from the Premier League.

Free agent right-backs

Rick Karsdorp

• Last club: PSV
• Salary: £49,000 per week
• Age: 30
• Career appearances: 300

Karsdorp’s second return to Dutch football, after a turbulent spell in Italy with Roma, only lasted a year, with PSV giving him just 20 appearances last season. He encountered problematic knee issues along the way and has confirmed he is taking some time out of the game.

Mattia De Sciglio

• Last club: Juventus
• Salary: £46,000 per week
• Age: 33
• Career appearances: 302

Getting to the age of 33 and only ever being owned by AC Milan and Juventus makes for a respectable CV. But De Sciglio fell out of favour with the latter and spent last season on loan with Empoli, a few years after his only other loan spell with Lyon.

Timothy Fosu-Mensah

• Last club: Bayer Leverkusen
• Salary: £15,000 per week
• Age: 28
• Career appearances: 97

Former Manchester United defender Fosu-Mensah was unused by Bayer Leverkusen in his final season with the club and then released by the Bundesliga champions in 2024, and remains without a club.

Free agent centre-backs

Daniel Amartey

• Last club: Besiktas
• Salary: £50,000 per week
• Age: 31
• Career appearances: 276

Ex-Leicester man Daniel Amartey, who can also play in midfield, only spent the 2023-24 season at Besiktas before being released and has been inactive since.

Sergio Ramos

• Last club: Monterrey
• Salary: £58,000 per week
• Age: 39
• Career appearances: 876

At his best, Ramos was one of the most formidable defenders on the planet. Those days are behind the Real Madrid legend now and he recently left Mexican side Monterrey after just under a year.

Jason Denayer

• Last club: Al Fateh
• Salary: £79,000 per week
• Age: 30
• Career appearances: 309

Former Manchester City, Sunderland and Celtic defender Denayer hasn’t played in Europe since 2022 when he left Lyon. At the end of January, he terminated his contract with Al Fateh in the Saudi Pro League.

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Free agent left-backs

Brandon Williams

• Last club: Hull City
• Salary: £30,000 per week
• Age: 25
• Career appearances: 98

Former Manchester United prospect Williams spent the whole 2024-25 season out of the game before signing terms with Hull City in the summer, only for his contract to be terminated after half a season to free him up to pursue other opportunities.

Jordan Amavi

• Last club: Brest
• Salary: £18,000 per week
• Age: 31
• Career appearances: 265

Formerly of Aston Villa – with whom he spent one season in the Premier League and one in the Championship – Amavi was released by Brest after making 13 appearances last season.

Logan Ndenbe

• Last club: Sporting Kansas City
• Salary: £8,000 per week
• Age: 25
• Career appearances: 135

A former Belgium U21 international, Ndenbe spent the past three years in MLS with Sporting Kansas City. His last club back in Europe were Guingamp.

Free agent midfielders

Dele Alli

• Last club: Como
• Salary: £92,000 per week
• Age: 29
• Career appearances: 386

Dele was hoping his new challenge with Como in Serie A could revitalise his career, but he only made one appearance for Cesc Fabregas’ side and got sent off within less than 10 minutes.

The former Tottenham Hotspur prospect saw his deal terminated in August.

Philippe Coutinho

• Last club: Vasco da Gama
• Salary: N/A
• Age: 33
• Career appearances: 597

He once cost more than £100m when he left Liverpool for Barcelona, but Coutinho’s career has gone downhill since and the attacking midfielder is seemingly now near the end of it after finishing his second spell with Vasco da Gama in Brazil.

Tiemoue Bakayoko

• Last club: PAOK
• Salary: £7,000 per week
• Age: 31
• Career appearances: 323

The former Chelsea flop spent last season with PAOK in the Greek Super League and is still only in his early thirties. Although he has struggled to convince at the elite level, he could be useful for a club with mid-sized ambitions.

Free agent wingers

Ryan Kent

• Last club: Seattle Sounders
• Salary: £13,000 per week
• Age: 29
• Career appearances: 323

Best known for his time with Rangers, Liverpool academy graduate Kent is well travelled now, having played for clubs in Germany, Turkey and the USA.

Seattle Sounders rejected an option to extend his contract for another year in January, freeing him up for a new challenge.

Malcolm Ebiowei

• Last club: Blackpool
• Salary: £10,000 per week
• Age: 22
• Career appearances: 48

After spells in the academies of Chelsea, Arsenal and Rangers, Ebiowei earned a Premier League move to Crystal Palace from Derby County in 2022.

But he only ever played five times for Palace and signed a two-year deal with Blackpool in the summer, only to leave by mutual consent in September.

Nathan Redmond

• Last club: Sheffield Wednesday
• Salary: N/A
• Age: 31
• Career appearances: 490

Redmond became a free agent in the summer when Burnley released him on the back of their promotion to the Premier League, but the one-time England international was picked up by Sheffield Wednesday in November.

It was only a short-term deal until the end of January, though, and injury issues – plus the fact all seven of his appearances came from the bench – meant his stay was not extended by the Championship strugglers.

Free agent strikers

Leo Bonatini

• Last club: Atletico San Luis
• Salary: £4,000 per week
• Age: 31
• Career appearances: 305

Part of the Wolves squad that won promotion to the Premier League back in 2017-18, Bonatini has since played for Nottingham Forest, Vitoria Guimaraes, Grasshoppers and Mexican side Atletico San Luis.

Odion Ighalo

• Last club: Al-Wehda
• Salary: £57,000 per week
• Age: 36
• Career appearances: 533

Since his time on loan at Manchester United around five years ago, Ighalo has been playing in the Saudi Pro League, with three different clubs.

The most recent, Al-Wehda, let him go in the summer after he scored 23 goals in 68 games for them.

Divock Origi

• Last club: AC Milan
• Salary: £86,000 per week
• Age: 30
• Career appearances: 369

Origi was a cult hero at Liverpool but has struggled to find a spark anywhere else since. Milan demoted the Belgian to their reserve team in 2024 after a loan spell with Nottingham Forest and then released him just before Christmas.

DON’T MISS: All the done deals by Premier League clubs in the January 2026 transfer window