A new study carried out by financial services firm KPMG has identified PSG forward Neymar as the most valuable player in world football.
KPMG used their Football Benchmark Player Valuation Tool to provide estimations of professional football players´ market values based on proprietary algorithms.
The tool relies heavily upon an analysis of past football player transactions taking place during the last six football seasons (from 2012/13 to 2017/18) and uses a linear regression model to identify the most relevant variables that influence the value of a player.
Some of the variables include:
- Player´s playing position (i.e. goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward);
- Age and nationality;
- Contract: assessment of a player´s contractual situation with his current club;
- Individual sports performance: assessment of the player´s on-pitch performance (e.g. goals, assists, minutes played, dribbles, tackles);
- Disciplinary actions (i.e. number of fouls, number of red and yellow cards);
- Assessment of the player´s performance with his national team (e.g. number of international matches, international goals);
- Assessment of the player´s media and commercial potential (if significant);
- Team performance and characteristics: sporting results, league competitiveness, economic and financial aspects of the club, etc.;
- Team dependence: evaluation of the importance of a given player in his playing team;
- Timing of player´s transfer and economic profiles of potential recruiting and selling clubs.
The list identified Neymar as the most valuable player with teammate Kylian Mbappe (€215m) registering second and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi (€203.3m) registering third.
Top 🔟 most valuable footballers according to KPMG:
1️⃣ Neymar Jr : €229.1m
2️⃣ Mbappe : €215m
3️⃣ Messi : €203.3m
4️⃣ Mo Salah : €168.3m
5️⃣ Harry Kane : €151.1m
6️⃣ Eden Hazard : €148.2m
7️⃣ De Bruyne : €129.4m
8️⃣ Griezmann : €125.6m
9️⃣ Pogba : €119.3m
🔟 Coutinho : €118.2m pic.twitter.com/BRpJZUmbGk— Yash (@yashnjr) January 4, 2019
