Since 2013, the CIES Football Observatory has annually been releasing a list of the top 100 valued footballers from Europe’s “Big-5” leagues. It’s a fascinating concept because rather than just saying “Messi is the best, he’s No. 1. Ronaldo is second-best, he’s No. 2, etc.,” the Observatory uses an algorithm that factors in things like recent activity for clubs and national teams, results, ages, positions, current league of employment, the economic level of the current club, the player’s contract, player value, nationality and an estimate of the economic level of a potential buyer to come up with these rankings.
It is, of course, highly speculative, but it’s all in good fun. For example, Pulisic’s confirmed current value — by Chelsea’s valuation — of $73 million is a large number, but it’s only good for No. 81 in the top 100. The American falls between Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso and Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka in the list.
Here are the 25 most valuable players in the world according to the 2019 rankings, and you can view the entire list of 100 by clicking here.
The 25 Most Valuable Soccer Players In The World 2019
25. Lorenzo Insigne — $120M
24. Alisson Becker — $121M
23. Luis Suarez — $125M
22. Jadon Sancho — $129M
21. Trent Alexander-Arnold — $134M
20. Ousmane Dembele — $138M
19. Cristiano Ronaldo - $145M
18. Eden Hazard - $148M
17. Paul Pogba - $149M
16. Bernardo Silva - $153M
15. Gabriel Jesús - $154M
14. Sadio Mané - $158M
13. Roberto Firmino - $167M
12. Dele Alli - $172M
11. Antoine Griezmann - $178M
10. Leroy Sané - $179M
9. Philippe Coutinho - $180M
8. Romelu Lukaku - $186M
7. Lionel Messi - $196M
6. Paulo Dybala - $197M
5. Mohamed Salah - $211M
4. Raheem Sterling - $213M
3. Neymar - $226M
2. Harry Kane - $230M
1. Kylian Mbappé - $250M
The most expensive transfer fee of all time is the $254 million that PSG paid to prize Neymar from Barcelona. That's followed by the $206M that PSG paid Monaco for Mbappe. As you can see, another Mbappe transfer — to, say, Real Madrid — would probably mean that the Frenchman commands the highest and third-highest transfer fees of all-time. (Although there's also the ever-present rumor of Neymar joining Real Madrid, meaning he could hold the top two spots himself.)
The18 Recommends For You
