Young and attacking – these are the most common features of the 10 football players who have increased their market value the most in the past five months. Indeed, six of them are under 21 years of age, the youngest one is Brazilian forward Rodrygo (18), who joins Real Madrid this summer. It is telling that there is only one player older than 25 on the list: Virgil van Dijk’s (28) exceptional season with Liverpool led to a sizeable gain in his market value. Also, the top 10 includes five forwards, three defenders and two midfielders.
With the 2019 summer transfer period getting increasingly busy, the KPMG Football Benchmark team have released their updated market value estimates for over 4,000 football players based on their latest sporting statistics provided by Opta. The estimates cover footballers who played in the first divisions of Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Turkey in the 2018/19 season. It is important to note that players who were transferred to another club after the conclusion of the season now appear in the squad of their new team in our database.
Regarding the top 10 players with the highest increase in their market value, the Spanish LaLiga is represented by the most players (3), followed by the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga (two players each). Three of the top 10 players with highest increase in market value are Dutch, and two are English, also a proof of the efficiency of the academy infrastructure nurturing young talents in both countries. Furthermore, the ranking is another testament to the recent resurgence of the Netherlands' national team and Ajax Amsterdam’s long Champions League campaign.
Nineteen-year-old Jadon Sancho sits at the top of this ranking after gaining almost EUR 50 million in market value since the start of the year, while the top eight players could boost their values by over EUR 30 million each.
The chart below shows the top 10 increases in market value (in absolute terms) since 1 January 2019.
Interestingly, Englishman Sancho also topped the “top 10 increase” ranking after our previous update, in which we compared market value changes from September 2018 to January 2019. This shows that Sancho was able to perform consistently at a high level: in his breakthrough season at Borussia Dortmund he helped the team with 13 goals and 15 assists. Besides him, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kai Havertz (both 20 years old) and Frenkie de Jong (22) have also made it into the top 10 of the market value increase ranking after both updates.
On the other end one can find Brazilian striker Neymar, the only player having lost more than EUR 30 million in value over the past five months. Romelu Lukaku, Philippe Coutinho and Alexis Sanchez also suffered decreases of more than EUR 20 million during that period.
This led to Neymar being overtaken by his teammate, Kylian Mbappé as the most valuable player in our ranking. The chart below shows the composition of the overall top 10. This ranking is more stable, with Philippe Coutinho dropping out of the top 10 and Raheem Sterling joining the elite, landing at the 7th spot.
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In the top 10 only Eden Hazard has completed a transfer recently. The Belgian playmaker joined Real Madrid from Chelsea for a reported fee of EUR 100 million, less than our EUR 163 million market value estimate. However, it is important to note that this valuation is based on the situation after the transfer: Hazard is now on a 5-year contract at Real Madrid, while he only had one season left on his Chelsea contract.
You can find more information on these players´ market value on the KPMG Football Benchmark website – our Player Valuation Tool includes data on more than 4,000 players from 11 different leagues. Launched in September 2018, and based on KPMG proprietary algorithms, this analytics platform enables industry stakeholders to take informed decisions about the subject of player valuation through the following features:
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Market values - updated three times per year - for more than 4,000 players covering the first divisions from the eleven following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Turkey; |
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Detailed sports performance metrics of each player for the ongoing season (2018/19) as well as for the last two seasons (2016/17 & 2017/18); |
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Comparison of selected players´ market value and sporting performance allowing evaluation and a deeper understanding of the market value components; |
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Ability to analyse drivers of the market value (e.g. age, position, league, nationality, etc.) in an interactive and dynamic fashion; |
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Evolution of the market values in comparison with the latest values (as of 1 September 2018) based on market dynamics and ongoing transfers. |
For more insight on the platform itself and the players' market values, visit our tool and follow our social media channels for the latest updates.
