Following talk of further monster transfer bids from China for Europe's top players, the CIES Football Observatory research group have listed the most expensive footballers in the world.
The four-person panel of football researchers and statisticians, based in Switzerland and originally set up by FIFA, has published their list of the players that would test even Far Eastern financial firepower. Behold the top 25 players below in our easy-to-compare chart – and it's not Messi or Ronaldo at No.1 either. All hail Neymar!
Best U23: Paul Pogba - £155.3m (5 in list)
Best U21: Dele Alli - £110.5m (9)
Best teenager: Ousmane Dembele - £71m (24)
The main findings? Many…
- Harry Kane and Dele Alli are ahead of Eden Hazard in the list
- Alexis Sanchez is not as valuable as Riyad Mahrez (what do you make of that one, Arsenal fans?)
- Ousmane Dembele is the most valuable teenager
Barcelona's deadly MSN attack takes up three of the top five positions in CIES' list, with Cristiano Ronaldo coming in a lowly seventh. Age is starting to catch up with the Portuguese superstar here, at least.
Elsewhere, Manchester United's Anthony Martial retains a high placing of 12th despite not impressing with his Premier League form for some time, while Raheem Sterling places one position above Gareth Bale with five years on the Welshman in age.
Spurs fare well by being the only outfit with two players in the top 10.
Meanwhile, Romelu Lukaku makes the cut of the dearest 25 players – the only Everton player in the 100-strong list – as 13 Premier League players make the upper echelons (well, top 25). That's the most from any of Europe's top leagues, though there is one more player from La Liga in the top 10 than from England's top division (five vs four).
Furthermore, in the longer list Nathan Redmond is valued higher than Renato Sanches by €5.8m, and Jamie Vardy is placed at No.52 at €52.2m. The Foxes striker is the joint-oldest outfield player (29) to feature.
You can find more information and the full 100 here.
