Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappé topped the list of the most valuable football players in the world after being deemed worth €265 million, as six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi was listed eighth after being valued at €125.5 million by Switzerland-based CIES Football Observatory.
The 21-year-old Mbappé has registered 19 goals and 11 assists from 20 appearances in all competitions this season in contrast to the 32-year-old Messi who has managed 16 goals and 9 assists so far.
Forwards Raheem Sterling and Mohammed Salah from English sides Manchester City and Liverpool were listed second and third after being valued at €223.7 and €175.1 million respectively.
Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona), Antoine Griezmann (FC Barcelona) and Lautaro Martínez (Internazionale) comprised the rest of the top ten most valuable players.
Per position, the most expensive players from a transfer value perspective were Alisson Becker (Liverpool) for goalkeepers (€87 M), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) for centre backs (€93 M), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) for full backs (€110 M), James Maddison (Leicester City) for midfielders (€112 M) and 21-year-old Kylian Mbappé for forwards.
Eleven out of the 20 big-5 league footballers with an estimated value of at least €100 million play for English Premier League clubs.
The list is based on CIES’ decade-old ‘Scientific assessment of football players’ transfer value’ which takes into account 36 variables such as activity in clubs and national teams,club and national team results, age, position, league of employment, economic level of the releasing club and economic level of the recruiting club.
Additionally, the players’ contract duration, year of transfer, book value loan status and nationality were also taken into account during the assessment of their values.
“Within a very dynamic context, the greatest challenge from a predictive standpoint resides in the ability to anticipate the level of inflation of costs,” said a press release.
The scientific evaluation of transfer values has a wide range of uses, including transfer negotiations, contractual negotiations, transfer litigation, credit negotiations, taking out insurance and club sale or purchase, the release added.
The mid-season football transfer window is open in England between January 1 and 31. In France, Germany and Spain it remains open from January 1 to February 2, while in Italy, the transfers are allowed to take place between January 2 and 31.
