€140m Messi world’s most valuable

Lionel Messi has been ranked as the most valuable player in the world and his club Barcelona as the most valuable club across the globe.

Brazilian consulting company Pluriconsultoria has released their annual study analysing the approximate market value of all the footballers in the professional game and has determined that La Liga holds the three most valuable players at the moment.

Messi tops the list with a €140m price tag, followed by Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo in second at €96.3m and Andres Iniesta third on €68.5m.

Pluriconsultoria also combined the value of players at each squad of 198 professional clubs across the world’s top Leagues and found that 171 of those came in at an amount below Messi’s individual price.

Meanwhile, Radamel Falcao is the highest mover in the chart, scaling up from 40th most valuable player in 2011 to the fifth most valuable, edging behind €60.2m-rated Wayne Rooney with a €56.1m figure next to his name. Barcelona target Neymar comes in at sixth position for the second year in a row, with a market figure of €55m to his name.

The top 20 most valuable players include six Spaniards and a total of 10 La Liga-based names, with Barca and Madrid dominating.

Unsurprisingly these two teams also hold the top two positions in the most valuable club list, with Barca priced at €671m and Real Madrid at €593m. Madrid are over €100m more valuable than third placed Manchester City, but the next most valuable Spanish team does not appear until 14th in the list, with Atletico Madrid ringing in at €226m, before Valencia appear in 21st at €170m cash value.

Each club competition worldwide was also assessed for total value, with the total values of each participating squad combined to work out the tournaments that have the highest value of talent competing against each other.

Top of the tree is the Champions League, with the 32 competing teams in 2012 having a combined roster value of over €6.4bn. This was closely followed by the Europa League’s 93 competing sides having a value of just over €6.0bn and then surprisingly the English League Cup in third, valued at slightly over €4.1bn.

The English Premier League follows in fourth, whilst the Copa del Rey in fifth at €2.9bn and La Liga in sixth at €2.6bn maintain the same positions from 2011’s study.

Each player’s value in this assessment was determined by 16 criteria including age, fundamentals, technique and quality, capacity for defining a game, tactical aspects, strength and physical conditioning, discipline and team spirit, clinical condition, position playing, level of championship competing in, international experience, caps for national team, achievements, marketing value, appreciation potential and current market demand.

Most valuable players
1. Lionel Messi, €140m
2. Cristiano Ronaldo, €96.3m
3. Andres Iniesta, €68.4m
4. Wayne Rooney, €60.2m
5. Radamel Falcao, €56.1m

Most valuable squads
1. Barcelona, €671m
2. Real Madrid, €593m
3. Manchester City, €489m
4. Manchester United, €452m
5. Bayern Munich, €429m

Most valuable club competitions
1. Champions League, €6.4bn
2. Europa League, €6.0bn
3. English League Cup, €4.1bn
4. English Premier League, €3.3bn
5. Spanish Copa del Rey, €2.9bn

Tags Falcao Iniesta Messi Primera Ronaldo
La Liga - Club News