Messi Still The Best, But The Gap Is Closing
The CIES Football Observatory this week launched its ninth edition of the Annual Review of the five major European championships, looking into the transfer market value of big-5 league footballers.
This year’s big mover saw Premier League top-scorer Luis Suarez become the third most valuable footballer in the world, according to the new report, rating the Liverpool and Uruguay striker at a minimum of £79million.
Only Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, worth at least £161.5m and £85.2m respectively, are valued more highly in the study.
The report is constructed from a range of information to produce a ‘real world’ price tag of what each star should objectively be worth in the transfer market this summer, with age, the length of contract remaining, position, performance data, international experience and the level at which the players are working all considered.
The fourth most valuable man on the list is Chelsea’s young star Eden Hazard, suggested to be worth at least £61.2m. Chelsea paid around half that sum when they bought the Belgium attacker two years ago.
For England, four players make the top 20, with first choice strikers Wayne Rooney (£29.6m) and Daniel Sturridge (£29.4m) valued less than youngsters Raheem Sterling (£31.2m) and Ross Barkley (£29.7m).
Outside the top 20, Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere is rated as worth at least £27.6m and sought-after Southampton full-back Luke Shaw is worth £23.2m.
Looking ahead to the summer the results of the research, while not specifically tailored towards the FIFA World Cup, do not back England’s chances.
Raffaele Poli, Head of CieS Football Observatory, explains: ‘With only one player in the top 10 places of the rankings per position, Daniel Sturridge among forwards, England will probably not be in a position to win the competition. The situation is even worse for France; the only player among the 10 best performing per position, Samir Nasri among the offensive midfielders, was not selected!’
However, Poli added: ‘Luckily, it is still difficult to predict game outcomes and chance will play a great role in such a short competition with knock-out matches.’
Comparing transfer fees paid by clubs to sign new players at the start or during the 2013/14 season and their current market value, the best and worst recruitments from a financial perspective were also revealed.
The highest negative gap was recorded for Gareth Bale (-€37 million), reflecting that Real Madrid paid over the odds in order to convince Tottenham to release the player.
In 2013/14, the Castilian team broke the record for the most expensive line-ups fielded with an average transfer expenditure per player of €32.3 million in their Champions League winning campaign.
Meanwhile, Spanish title winners Atlético Madrid completed a memorable season with an average transfer fee of ‘only’ €4.3 million per player on the pitch.
