CIES has calculated the market value of the most popular footballers on the planet. Lamine Yamal is by far the most expensive of them. Three French people appear in the top 10.
In its latest weekly letter, the CIES Football Observatory (International Center for the Study of Sport) has established a ranking of the 100 most expensive footballers in the world. Based on the different factors that will vary the market value of a player (age, contract, position, performance, etc.) and on previous transfers which give an idea of the market, the CIES came to an unsurprising conclusion: Lamine Yamal is, by far, the most expensive player there is.
Runner-up to Ousmane Dembélé for the 2025 Ballon d’Or, the 18-year-old Barcelona striker is estimated at 343 million euros. The second in this ranking, Erling Haaland (Manchester City), is valued at €255 million. Kylian Mbappé, who has just turned 27, completes this podium with a figure of €201 million. The Blues captain cost 180 when he moved from Monaco to PSG in 2017, and signed free for Real Madrid a year and a half ago.
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The dizzying fall in the price of Bellingham
Note the presence of two other French people in the top 10: Michael Olise (Bayern Munich), fifth with a value of €136.9 million, and Désiré Doué (PSG), seventh with €134.6 million. Just behind him comes another Parisian, Portuguese midfielder João Neves (€130.6 million). In total, eight PSG players are mentioned, but not Dembélé whose age (28 years) is a discount factor. Only one other Ligue 1 player is mentioned: OM’s English striker, Mason Greenwood, 95e out of 100 with a price set at €64 million.
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CIES had already taken part in the game exactly a year ago. By comparing, we notice that Mbappé, despite his advancing age, has increased in value (from €175 to €201 million). That of his Madrid teammate Jude Bellingham, on the other hand, fell sharply (from €251 to €153 million). The same goes for French midfielder Eduardo Camavinga, valued at €105 million last year and now at €64.4 million.
