Paris Saint Germain striker Kylian Mbappé is the world’s most valuable footballer, according to Swiss think tank CIES Football Observatory, followed by Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr. and Manchester City’s new signing Erling Haaland. Mbappe, who turned down Madrid and signed a new three-year deal at PSG last month, tops the list with an estimated transfer value of 205.6 million euros ($219.5 million), overtaking Vinicius ( €185.3 million) and Haaland (€152.6 million).
Neymar, Mbappé’s teammate at PSG, holds the current record in the transfer area. The French champion paid Barcelona 222 million euros for his signing in 2017.
The “top” five are completed by the young Barça player Pedri (135.1 million euros) and the English midfielder for Borussia Dortmund Jude Bellingham (133.7 million euros).
The CIES Football Observatory uses indicators such as the player’s age, his performance, his career progression and the duration of his contract to arrive at a transfer value.
The new list is dominated by Premier League players, with 41 representatives in the top 100. By clubs, Manchester City and Barcelona are the ones with the most players among the top ten. The azulgrana and sky blue teams both have three players in the top positions. In the case of the Catalan team, Pedri González is the best placed, fifth, on a list that also includes Frenkie de Jong (7) and Ferran Torres (10).
City’s Rúben Dias (€109.6m) was the player with the highest transfer value for a defender, while PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma (€73.7m) topped the list of goalkeepers. City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, 30, was the oldest player on the list, worth €57.3m.
