By Paul Nicholson
December 7 – Player values that have dropped on aggregate by 20% over the period of the coronavirus crisis have remained stagnant with few players having regained their pre-pandemic market values, according to an analysis of player market values by KPMG Football Benchmark.
In the spring of 2020 KPMG reported a 19.6% decrease in the aggregate values of the top 500 players, and 17.9% drop in the top 100.
The one league that bucks the trend is inevitably the all-powerful English Premier League where KPMG finds the average market value of a player at €21.2 million is almost twice as much as the average value of a player in the German Bundesliga or Spain’s LaLiga (€11.4 million and €11 million, respectively).
Portugal’s Primeira Liga is the most valuable league outside of the traditional ‘Big Five’, followed by the Dutch Eredivisie, the Russian Premier League and then England’s second-tier Championship.
“Considering year-on-year change, the average market value of a player in the EPL grew by €2.7 million (+15%) compared to December 2020, followed by Ligue 1 (+€0.7 million, an 8% growth) and Primeira Liga (+€0.6m, +27%). Minor growth was registered in the Bundesliga, the LaLiga and the Serie A and the Turkish Süper Lig, while average player values slightly decreased in the top tiers of Argentina, the Netherlands and in the English EFL Championship,” finds the KPMG report.
Looking at squad values, Premier League clubs fill five of the top ten slots, with the top three clubs – Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United – all with squad values of more than €1 billion.
The report highlights the 42% growth in squad value of Champions League winners Chelsea, fuelled “in part to Romero Lukaku who signed for the club this summer and the rise of young talents such as Mason Mount or Reece James. From the five EPL clubs in this ranking, only Tottenham suffered a major decrease in their total squad value (-24%) in year-on-year terms.”
Power players
Looking at individual players, Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland is still the world’s most valuable football player, according to KPMG’s algorithm, with a market value of €142 million. The top 10 list includes eight players from the Premier League – Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Phil Foden join the top 10 (Foden for the first time), while three dropped out: Neymar (from 6th to 15th), Frenkie de Jong (from 7th to 11th) and Kevin De Bruyne (from 8th to 12th).
KPMG highlight Foden as more than doubling his value in a year (from €49.5 million in December 2020 to the current €117 million). Haaland added €32 million to his value – last December he was 10th in the ranking with €110 million.
“In contrast, Mbappé lost €71.8 million in value year on year, primarily due to his contract running out next summer,” says the report.
“From the top 10 ranking of December 2020, only six players remained, signalling a gradual change of the guard at the very top of the game.– The four players who could not keep their top 10 position are Raheem Sterling (2nd a year ago and 21th now), Neymar (from 4th to 15th), Sadio Mané (from 7th to 30th), and Kevin De Bruyne (from 8th to 12th).”
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