By Paul Nicholson
January 5 – Lionel Messi is worth €100 million more than Neymar and he is worth €66 million more than Luis Suarez who is the eighth most valuable player in Europe, according to a CIES Football Observatory ranking of the 100 most valuable players in the Big 5 European Leagues in England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy.
Messi comes in at a whopping €252 million valuation, but this is a €17 million drop on his previous valuation reflecting, says CIES, the later stage of his career.
Chelsea’s Eden Hazard comes in as the third most valuable player at €130 million (a decrease from his previous valuation of €142m), followed by Cristiano Ronaldo (€114m), Harry Kane (€91.3m – pictured) and Raheem Sterling (€89.8m). Next comes France’s Antoine Greizmann of Athletic Madrid at €88.3 million.
The valuation is based on a model created by the CIES Football Observatory research team that analyses more than 1,500 transfers since 2010 and takes into account criteria including performance and personal characteristics of players (age, position, contract duration, etc.), as well as to the competition level and results of their employer club and national team represented (if any).
For example, the fifth most valuable player, Harry Kane, has seen his value lift by €35 million since June 2015. This is primarily based on his good first half of the season form, his age (22), and the good results achieved by his employer club, Tottenham. CIES reckons that with the same level of performance and Champions League qualification, Kane’s value will probably reach the €100 million mark at the end of the season.
In contrast, Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer dropped slightly down since last June from €119 million to €114 million. This is mainly due to his age – he is 31 in February. With Santi Cazorla, he is the only player aged 30 or over in the top 100 positions of the ranking.
Ten of the top 20 highest valued players are at English clubs, seven in Spain, two in Germany and one in Italy. The highest ranked player at a French club I PSG’s Marco Veratti in 26th place.
The top 100 list can be viewed at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2015/131/en/. There is also a player value calculator at http://www.football-observatory.com/transfer-value. CIES says this is based on a less sophisticated algorithm but that “although less precise than the statistical model used for these estimates, its predictive power is also high.”
Top 20 Transfer Values, January 2016
Source: CIES Football Observatory
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