January 8 – A player valuation ranking by the CIES Football Observatory makes Kylian Mbappé (France and Paris St-Germain) the world’s most valuable player at €265.2 million, with Man City and England’s Raheem Sterling at €223.7 million.
They are the only two players valued at over €200 million. Liverpool and Egypt’s Mohammed Salah is ranked third with a valuation of 175.1 million. His Liverpool and African compatriot Sadio Mane – Africa’s just crowned player of the year – is ranked fifth and valued at €155.6 million.
The ranking lists 20 players all valued at more than €100 million. The world’s biggest ever signing, Neymar, has halved his value since that €222 million signing for PSG in 2017. He is currently ranked 19th, valued at €100.4 million.
In contrast, his former Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi is ranked eighth in the list valued at €125.5 million, just €5 million behind Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford. At 32, Messi is four years older than the next highest aged player (Roberto Firmino at 28), 13 of the ranked players are under the age of 25. Messi is 11 years older than Mbappé.
17 of the players are forwards in the top 20, 11 of them play for English Premier League clubs.
The report authors point out: “Per position, the most expensive players from a transfer value perspective are Alisson Becker for goalkeepers (€77 million), Virgil van Dijk for centre backs (€93 million), Trent Alexander Arnold for full backs (€110 millon), James Maddison for midfielders (€112 million) and Kylian Mbappe for forwards (€265 million).”
See the full stats at https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2019/wp279/en/
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