Real Madrid now know how much they have to pay Liverpool…
The transfer market can be a very scary environment for some managers because there’s no exact science when it comes to getting value for money.
For every Dennis Irwin there will always be an El-Hadji Diouf. Holy moly, that could be the first and only time that those two players are ever used in the same sentence.
The rather brilliantly-named CIES Football Observatory has devised a unique algorithm to create this list which was based on 1,500 transfers that were made in the last five years along with the following:
1) Performance data (matches, goals, dribbles, assists), 2) physical characteristics (age, position, contract length), 3) competition level and results achieved by their teams (both club and national)
No surprises that the godlike Lionel Messi tops the list with a valuation of €220million (£173m), while his best friend Cristiano Ronaldo is worth €133m (£104m).
The main surprise is that Raheem Sterling is the seventh-most valuable player in world right now according to this data. Cue Florentino Perez writing a cheque as we speak, made out to this exact amount.
The 20-year-old would command a fee of €63m (£50m) which is more than Wayne Rooney, Alexis Sanchez, Gareth Bale and Neymar.
What’s interesting is that Bale is only worth £47m according to this data, which is almost half of what Real Madrid actually paid Spurs for the Welshman.
We put that down to Daniel Levy’s intense negotiation tactics where he financially beats the living crap out of the other club’s delegate.
The info also states that Man Utd paid £15 over the odds for Angel Di Maria, while Eden Hazard is the third most valuable player in world football at €99m (£77.6m), Diego Costa is fourth and Cesc Fabregas is also in the top 10.
Here’s a link to the full PDF which makes for very interesting reading.
