One entrant makes the top 10…
Swiss football analysers CIES Football Observatory have released their annual list of the 100 most valuable footballers on the planet.
They base their calculations on a player’s ability, contract status, age and therefore sell-on value, league, national side, and standing in the world game.
Six of our squad made the top 100, and you’ll be mightily surprised by some of the results!
6) -97th- Adam Lallana – €21m
Scraping his way onto the list is our £26m summer signing, who the report reckons has actually dropped value since arriving from Southampton over the summer. Lallana is sandwiched between Arda Turan and Stevan Jovetic, and is worth just less than Marcelo of Real Madrid and Juventus superstar Carlos Tevez. The fact Lallana has five years left on his contract, and the fact he’s still in his prime has seen him ranked level with these more illustrious names, and as a Liverpool fan, we only hope he returns to first-team action soon after he picked up an injury versus Leicester City in the Premier League last time out.
5) -68th- Daniel Sturridge – €25m
Next is the man many Liverpool supporters believe is our best (and therefore most valuable?) player, Daniel Sturridge. The striker’s injury, which has seen him out of action since August, has rocked our season, and saw us crash out of a potential title race and the Champions League. He’s back at the end of the month though, and for nearly all of us, his return couldn’t come quicker. There’s no way the club would consider selling him for anything close to €25m, either.
4) -65th- Mario Balotelli – €26m
Balotelli’s ranking and valuing must be more down to his worldwide fame and his historical ability than his form in a Liverpool shirt, because he’s yet to score a Premier League goal since signing for £16m in the summer. Somehow though, CIES reckons this warrants a rise in value, despite the fact he can’t get in the team anymore. If a €26m offer were to arrive, we’d likely snap the club’s hand off.
3) – 61st – Jordan Henderson – €27m
The man who will captain Liverpool next year is rated as the 61st most valuable player in the world. Aged 24, he’s entering his prime years as a central midfielder, and we’re all praying he steps into Steven Gerrard’s shoes when the skipper moves to LA Galaxy in the summer. Henderson’s valued the same as Carlos Vela, Ivan Rakitic and Alvaro Morata – but he’d unlikely be available for anything but a ludicrous transfer offer.
2) – 35th – Coutinho €34m
Valued the same as Sergio Busquets, Marco Reus, Vincent Kompany and Gonzalo Higuain (praise indeed) is our mercurial Brazilian playmaker. Coutinho’s age boosts him here, as do his recent caps for the Brazilian national team and the fact he has four years left on his contract. The 22-year-old’s talent is incredible, and as Liverpool fans, we can only hope he fulfils it.
1) – 7th – Raheem Sterling – €63m
Unbelievably, Sterling is rated as the 7th most valuable footballer on the planet – already! The ranking highlights his meteoric rise in 2014, and his status as one of England’s best players despite just exiting his teens. Jaw-droppingly, CIES think he’s more valuable than Neymar (11th), Gareth Bale (12th), Mario Gotze (13th), and, wait for it… Luis Suarez (16th)! While we like nothing more than seeing our best players lauded by any means possible, we think it’s a little early to mention Sterling in this ilk just yet – although he has more than enough ability to reach stratospheric levels one day.
See the entire top 100, here.
