In 2022 there have been some powerful transfers we should talk about. For example, Man City and Liverpool have strengthened their squads with two forwards — Erling Haaland and Darwin Núñez. The clubs paid more than €70 million for both strikers.
Núñez's move seems surprising in this regard, as he was valued at €50-55 million before the transfer. But Liverpool had to overpay in order to somehow compete with Man City. This transfer confirms the fact that the experts' evaluations don't always match the real value of the players' transfers. Telecom Asia Sport talks about the most expensive players in modern football and tells how much the most expensive player in the world is worth.
⚡ How Did We Make the Ranking?
There are several analytical agencies that estimate the cost of players. Even some major European media make their own lists. Many factors are taken into account in the calculation, from salary and age to the facts about a particular player and his possible performances in other leagues.
Yet objectively, there are two major sources: Transfermarkt and CIES Football Observatory. The first portal is the most popular in the world in this field and, as a result, it's one of the most respected. Even the clubs refer to it when drawing up transfer budgets.
However, TM has one major disadvantage, and that is the human factor. The value of players is evaluated not by the computer and not even by some specially designed method, but by a pool of domestic experts. Consequently, they may have some preferences or commonplace misconceptions about a particular player.
CIES Football Observatory is a more professional analytical portal. They calculate everything according to their own method, but all the details are kept secret. In this sense, the CIES FO data is certainly a little more accurate, but they also have a disadvantage.
As funny as it is, but this disadvantage is once again the human factor. When buying a particular player, the clubs evaluate the transfer not in terms of the real price of the asset, but by other criteria. For example, a club may need to sell a player urgently to cover their losses. And they often have to get rid of a player for a low price. But that's just an example of a factor, there are dozens of them in reality.
Recent examples are Richarlison and Paul Pogba. Everton sold their leader for €58 million, although they could have potentially sold him for €70 million. Pogba moved to Juventus for free, except that MU could have sold him last summer for a relatively small sum of money, knowing that the Frenchman was in the last year of his contract.
Either way, both methods certainly have a right to exist. So, we compiled our list by averaging TM and CIE OF scores. At least both portals/agencies agree on the top three most expensive players of 2022. There is a little disagreement, mostly about the prices.
⚽ Top 3 Highest-Paid Footballers
➤ Kylian Mbappé, PSG. Value - €182.8 million
(Transfermarkt - €160 million, CIES Football Observatory - €205 million)
He is by far the most expensive player in the world. Mbappé should potentially be the first after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi leave. Although he stormed into world football at the end of the last decade like a meteor, the 2018 World Cup winner has yet to win the Champions League. But he has his whole life ahead of him.
Mbappe is a true gamechanger, a player who alone can decide the outcome of a match. Nature has gifted him with insane speed, instinct and understanding of the field. In fact, the Frenchman is the reference of the perfect forward. The only problem that could somehow prevent him in the future is his mental side.
Not all players pass this challenge. Mbappé is almost the most popular man in France right now, and we've already seen the example of a player who ruined his enormous talent with his attitude toward the game. Neymar, the most expensive player in the history of football, whom PSG signed for the record €222 million, would be in the top 3 now, but neither computers nor analysts believe in him anymore.
In the summer Mbappé could have moved to Real Madrid, a system capable of winning the Champions League almost every year. But he chose to stay in Paris. If Kylian will lead PSG to the champion title, he will easily be included in the list of the best players of all time. But in the meantime, let's see what happens to him in the next 10 years.
➤ Erling Haaland, Man City. Value - €155 million
(Transfermarkt: €150 million, CIES Football Observatory: €160 million)
Haaland is Mbappé's main rival in the fight for the Ballon d'Or in the coming years. Unlike the Frenchman, the Norwegian moved to a top team in the summer and it is possible that he will win the Champions League soon. Both TM and CIES FO value the player at €150 million, but it is the new contract with Man City that plays an important role.
Man City have acquired the player for €70 million, although he was estimated at €130-150 million. Now nobody will be able to buy him for such a small amount. Maybe something like Real Madrid would have to break Neymar's record for Haaland. And after all he is only 21 years old, Erling has another 15 years of top-level football ahead of him.
The Norwegian is a cold-blooded killer. If he knows he can score at some point, he will do it 90% of the time. However, unlike Mbappé, the Norwegian is injury-prone, and the tough EPL isn't the soft Bundesliga. In this respect, the Frenchman has an advantage, as no other football league compares with the Premier League in terms of brutality. Neymar understood it very well, but Mbappé so far has avoided serious injuries.
To sum it up, in the near future we can expect that both Мbappé and Haaland will be worth over €200 million, and the future of world football is in their hands.
➤ Vinicius, Real Madrid. Value - €145 million
(Tranfermarkt: €110 million, CIES Football Observatory: €180 million)
This is where Transfermarkt and CIES Football Observatory disagree dramatically. Before the World Cup, the experts of TM valued the Brazilian at €100 million, and the analysts in the CIES FO — at €180 million. It seems that the Brazilian's performance in the Champions League 21/22 is to blame for that.
Vinicius's main trump card is his speed. Man City's defenders felt it perfectly in the 21/22 Champions League semi-finals. In recent years, he has improved his passes and efficiency. Still, Vinicius is not a typical striker or Karim Benzema in terms of scoring.
Was Vinicius' valuation of €180 million fair? It doesn't seem to be at first glance. But Transfermarkt's €100 million is also a grossly underestimated figure. Despite the failure of the Brazilian national team at the 2022 World Cup, a unique tournament to have been held in the middle of a club season, Vinicius' value has increased by €20 million on Transfermarkt. He still has a chance of becoming a superstar, but he may well remain a perfect supporting figure.
⭐ Top 3 Most Expensive Transfers in Football History
As mentioned above, a high price on analytical portals doesn't necessarily lead to an expensive transfer. João Félix in his last season at Benfica was valued at €70 million, but Atletico decided to pay €126 million for the ultra-talented Portuguese.
➤ Neymar, Barcelona → PSG
And it's not given that a very expensive transfer will be successful in the end. At the moment, the record transfer is the one of Neymar from Barcelona to PSG for €222 million. Potentially, Barcelona could have gained a lot from this deal if it had distributed the funds wisely. But the wrong actions have led to the economic collapse of the Catalans.
➤ Mbappé, Monaco → PSG
Mbappé's move from Monaco to PSG comes in second place. The Parisians have paid €180 million for the superstar, but the transfer itself was designed originally. To skirt the rules of financial fair play, PSG took the player on loan with the option of compulsory purchase.
First, Monaco received €35 million for Mbappe, and the next year PSG bought the player for €145 million. It is possible that in the future Kylian will beat Neymar's record if he wants to leave Paris in the next few years.
➤ Coutinho, Liverpool → Barcelona
Philippe Coutinho is in third place — Barcelona bought the forward for €145 million from Liverpool. This transfer is commonly known as the most disastrous in history: the Brazilian failed to replace Neymar, which caused the club financial problems. After that he was sent on loan to Bayern Munich where, ironically, he won the UEFA Champions League, also contributing to the legendary 8-2 game with Barça. In the end, four years after his signing, Barcelona let Coutinho go to Aston Villa for €20 million.
In theory, Eden Hazard should have been on that list instead of Coutinho. According to the documents, Real Madrid purchased the Belgian from Chelsea for €100 million, but the follow-up leaks revealed that the Londoners can get as much as €180 million for the player for fulfilling certain conditions. But there is no official confirmation of this, so Hazard ranks only 10th in the ranking of the most expensive transfers.
