Jude Bellingham’s the hottest name now in the transfer rumors pages with an avalanche of stories about his next destination. Borussia Dortmund’s exciting 19-year-old English midfielder is currently the hottest property in world soccer right, and could unsurprisingly be worth even more than Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
CIES Football Observatory, part of the International Center for Sports Studies in Switzerland, has published its January 2023 list of the world’s most valuable soccer players, with the list calculating player value based on an algorithm that factors in age, nationality, contract length and current club as well as ability and results.
While Kylian Mbappe topped the list in June 2022, he has now been overtaken by Jude Bellingham with CIES valueing the latter at $222 million, making him the most valuable player in the world, having moved up from fifth place in June 2022. With his latest valuation, he is now worth a lot more than the humble $25 million or thereabouts that Borussia Dortmund paid Birmingham City for him in 2020.
Manchester City’s Phil Foden is second at $214 million, followed by Mbappe at $203 million. Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior and Foden’s Manchester City teammate Erling Haaland complete the top five.
The impact of age and contract length on player value can be best seen in Marcus Rashford. The Manchester United star was ranked the most most valuable player in the world by CIES as recently as January 2021. But age and contract sensitivities, as well as a period of injuries and poor form, have seen him fall out of the top 100 most valuable players in the world.
Manchester United only have four players on the list, with Bruno Fernandes at 25th spot while Manchester City have 13 players in the top 100.
Bayern Munich have the second most players on the list with nine, the most valuable of which is 19-year-old German international Jamal Musiala.
Liverpool have eight players on the list, Arsenal seven and West Ham United, currently badly struggling in the Premier League this season have two players.
The list is unsurprisingly dominated by players in the five biggest leagues in Europe. The most valuable player outside of these leagues is Benfica’s Enzo Fernandez, who recently won the World Cup with Argentina.