Manchester City have one of the best squads in Europe as evidenced by last season’s Champions League triumph and winning four successive Premier League titles.
But new data provided by CIES Football Observatory rates three of City’s stars among the 10 most expensive players in world football. The data compiled by CEIS factors determines transfer values based on several criteria, such as ‘age, length of contract, minutes, the proportion of the latter as a starter, the sporting level of matches played, results, the economic strength of the player's club and league, that of potential buyers, the level of inflation’.
Along with the three City players, stars of Real Madrid and Arsenal feature heavily in the top 10, with one selection from Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen. The most expensive player on the list is valued at €280m (£239m).
Another interesting finding sees Josko Gvardiol ranked as the world’s most expensive defender, although he’s 17th in the list, one of nine City players in the full list of 100 (Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji, Rico Lewis, Gvardiol, Rodri, Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez, Erling Haaland). At 28, Akanji is one of the oldest players on the list, in fact 30-year-old Harry Kane is the only older player listed. At 16, Lamine Yamal is the youngest player to make the top 100.
Borussia Dortmund’s Gregor Kobel is the world’s most expensive goalkeeper according to CIES, while Arsenal’s William Saliba is first for centre-backs.
Below is the full list of the top-10 most expensive players according to CEIS...
1. Florian Wirtz - £114m (10th)
2. Martin Odegaard - £115m (9th)
3. Lamine Yamal - £120m (8th)
