France and Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe has been rated as the most valuable footballer in the world, at a staggering €265m, as the new winter transfer widow goes wide open, according to the CIES Football Observatory algorithm.
England and Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling, as well as Egypt and Liverpool forward, Mohamed Salah complete the top three footballers in the world with high transfer market values.
It will interest the Nigerian football faithful to know that Alex Iwobi of Everton is in the 68th position, valued at €73m. Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, valued at €70.1m, is 77th in the list, while Lille forward, Victor Osimhen, takes the 101st spot as he is valued €62.9m by the CIES team.
Remarkably, six-time Ballon d’Or king – the Barcelona and Argentina legend, Lionel Messi, 32, is eighth in the list, valued at €125.5millon.
Five-time Ballon d’Or winner – Juventus and Portugal’s talismanic forward, Cristiano Ronaldo,34, makes a distant 49th position in the list, valued at €80.3 million, a step higher than France and Manchester United midfielder, Paul Pogba, who is valued at €80.4m.
The CIES Football Observatory has opened a new exciting decade of football analytics with the exclusive publication of its traditional list of the big-5 league players with the greatest estimated transfer values.
The CIES Football Observatory is a research group within the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES). Created in 2005 by Dr. Raffaele Poli and Dr. Loïc Ravenel, the CIES Football Observatory currently comprises a staff of four full-time permanent researchers who specialise in the statistical analysis of football.
Issue number 279 of the CIES Weekly Post presents the 166 footballers in the big-5 leagues valued at more than €50 million.
Per position, the most expensive players from a transfer value perspective are Alisson Becker for goalkeepers (€77m), Virgil van Dijk for centre backs (€93 M), Trent Alexander-Arnold for full backs (€110 M), James Maddison for midfielders (€112m) and Kylian Mbappé for forwards (€265m). Eleven out of the 20 big-5 league footballers with an estimated value of at least €100 million play for English Premier League clubs.
There are at least two players worth more than €100m in each of the remaining big-5 leagues: three in the Liga (Messi, Griezmann and Joao Felix), two in the Ligue 1 (Mbappe and Neymar), two in the Serie A (Martínez and Lukaku), as well as two in the Bundesliga (Sancho and Werner).
CIES Football Observatory research team use an exclusive approach they developed to estimate transfer values of footballers on a scientific basis.
CIES’ Most Valued 20 Players in Transfer Market
1. Kylian Mbappe – Forward (Paris St-Germain/France ): €265.2m
2. Raheem Sterling – Forward (Manchester City/England): €223.7m
3. Mohammed Salah – Forward (Liverpool/ Egypt): €175.1m
4. Jadon Sancho – Forward (Borussia Dortmund/ Germany): €168.9m
5. Sadio Mane – Forward (Liverpool/Senegal): €155.6m
6. Harry Kane – Forward (Tottenham/England): €150.5m
7. Marcus Rashford -Forward (Manchester United/England): 134.3m
8. Lionel Messi – Forward ( Barcelona/Argentina): €125.5m
9. Antoine Griezmann – Forward ( Barcelona/France): €123.6m
10. Lautaro Martínez – Forward (Inter Milan/ Argentina): €115.7m
11. Gabriel Jesus – Forward (Manchester City/Brazil): €115.6m
12. James Maddison – Midfielder (Leicester City/England): €112.4m
13. Timo Werner – Forward (RB Leipzig/Germany): €112.0m
14. Roberto Firmino – Forward (Liverpool/ Brazil): €111.5m
15. Trent Alexander-Arnold – Full-Back (Liverpool/ England): €110.5m
16. Richarlison de Andrade – Forward (Everton/Brazil): €104.0m
17. Tammy Abraham – Forward (Chelsea/England): 103.1m
18. Joao Felix Atletico – Forward (
Real Madrid/Portugal): €100.6m
19. Neymar Junior – Forward (Paris St-Germain/ Brazil): €100.4m
20. Romelu Lukaku Inter Milan/Belgium): €Observatory
