Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is the
most valuable player in world football and worth almost twice as much as
Cristiano Ronaldo, according to a study by the CIES Football
Observatory.
The ninth edition of the annual football
review has estimated the Argentina international's value at
£161.5million ahead of second-placed Ronaldo on £85.2m and Liverpool's
Luis Suarez, whose worth is put at £79.4m.
Chelsea's Eden Hazard and Messi's Barcelona team-mate Neymar complete the top five, valued at £61.2m and £50.6m respectively.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo's Real Madrid team-mate Gareth Bale comes in at
seventh, valued at £50.9m, almost £30m less than the world-record £80.6m
fee Real Madrid paid Tottenham for the Wales international's services
last year.
Colombia striker Radamel Falcao and Argentina winger Erik Lamela have
seen their values fall by more than 50 per cent since completing
transfers 12 months ago.
Falcao joined Monaco for £48.4m from Porto last season and is now
worth £22.7m, according to the study, while Lamela, who joined Tottenham
for a fee of £28.2m from Roma, is valued at £13.6m.
The 96-page publication also found Real Madrid fielded the most
expensive starting line-up ever during their successful 2013/2014 UEFA
Champions League campaign with average transfer expenditure per player
of over £24m.
By contrast, La Liga winners and Champions League runner-ups Atletico Madrid had average transfer fees of just £3.2m per player.
The CIES Football Observatory uses a database that has been developed
since 2005 and will disclose their 2014 World Cup predictions based on
their formula within the next week.
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