The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) Football Observatory have released the list of football most valuable players and no Nigerian footballer made the top 100 with Salah leading the way for African footballers. The Egyptian international who plays his club football with Liverpool in England is ranked the 5th most valuable player with a value of €184 million.
Another Liverpool forward Sadio Mane is the next valuable African ranking 14th in the list with a value of €137m. Arsenal forward Pierre Emerick Aubameyang is the other African that made the top 50 with a value of €95 m. However, the likes of Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez, Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly, and Lyon’s Bernand Traore are all in the top 100.
The most valuable player in the world, however, is French golden boy Kylian Mbappe with a value €218m with Harry Kane €200m and Neymar €197m rounding up the top three. Barcelona superstar Lionel misses out on the top five coming in at a distant 7th place with a value of €171 m while his longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo missed out on the top 10 entirely coming in at 17th place with a value of €127.m
CIES have created an algorithm that calculates the worth of players from European football’s top five leagues, with factors such as “age,” “position,” “club and national team results” and “position” some of the attributes considered.
Here are the top 10 and their respective valuations (for the list in full visit the CIES website):
1. Kylian Mbappe (PSG) – £196 million
2. Harry Kane (Tottenham) – £180 million
3. Neymar (PSG) – £177 million
4. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) – £167 million
5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) – £165 million
6. Paulo Dybala (Juventus) – £154 million
7. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – £154 million
8. Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United) – £145 million
9. Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona) – £141 million
10. Leroy Sane (Manchester City) – £140 million
