Like every January, the CIES Football Observatory has calculated the transfer values of players in the five major European leagues.
In the top 100 are five African players. Three of them play in the English Premier League with one each playing in the German and Italian top flights.
The assessment takes into account the key criteria used by market actors such as age, position, contract duration, performance, international status, etc. A research note details the scientific methodology used for these estimates.
Egyptian Mohammed Salah, who is Africa’s current best player, is the first African listed – at number 12 and worth 140.5 million euros. Nigeria’s 21-year old Wilfred Ndidi of Leicester City is listed at number 51 with a value of 77.4m euros while Senegalese Sadio Mane, 25 years – Salah’s Liverpool club mate – sits in 69th place, valued at 66.3m euros. The fourth most expensive African player, according to the CIES Football Observatory, is Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The 28-year old, who plays for Dortmund in the German Bundesliga, is listed at 72 and worth 64.7m euros. Another Senegalese, Kalidou Koulibaly of Italian side Napoli takes the 80th position with a value of 62m euros.
Salah, 25 years, is a Liverpool forward who previously struggled to impress in the English top flight when with Chelsea, completed a £36.9m signing to Liverpool from Roma in June 2017.
Salah has been a revelation for the Merseyside club since joining, culminating in winning the BBC African Footballer of the Year award last December and the CAF African Footballer of the Year award this month.
Overall, Neymar of Brazil (€213m) heads the table ahead of Argentine Lionel Messi (€202m) and Englishman Harry Kane (€195m).
The rankings show that five players from the English Premier League are in the top ten.
The BBC analysed that Kane’s Spurs and England team-mate Dele Alli, 21, is sixth on the list and the second-highest Premier League player.
Manchester City playmaker Kevin de Bruyne, 26, Manchester United forward Romelu Lukaku and midfielder Paul Pogba, both 24, are the other England-based players to make the top 10.
Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo, 32, named the world’s best male player at the 2017 Best Fifa Football Awards, is 49th on the list and valued at 80.4m euros (£71.29m)
New Barcelona signing Philippe Coutinho is 16th on the list, with the 25-year-old playmaker valued £33m below what the La Liga giants paid for him.
Juventus’ 24-year-old striker Paulo Dybala (£155.18m) heads the Serie A rankings, while Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, 29, (£94.88m) tops the Bundesliga players.
However, the highest estimated values for goalkeepers and defenders were recorded for two FC Barcelona’s players: Marc-André ter Stegen (€96m) and Samuel Umtiti (€101m).
