Buenos Aires  - The global economic crisis has strongly hit transfers of Argentine players abroad in the most recent window, with a 70 per cent drop in income, media reports said Wednesday.

Argentine clubs went from getting 43 million euros (55 million dollars) in the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2007-2008 to just 12.5 million euros (16 million dollars) during the same period this year, the Argentine daily Critica reported.

Things could have been worse without the transfer of Jesus Datolo from Boca Juniors to Napoli for over 6 million euros and the return of Leonardo Ponzio from River Plate to Zaragoza for 2.5 million euros.

Moreover, non-traditional markets for Argentine players, like Russia, Brazil, Ukraine, Romania or Croatia, took up a larger share of the business at 6.78 million euros, 40 per cent of the total for the season. (dpa)