20 years of market values at TM
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The 2017/18 season was historic not only in terms of sport, but also in the transfer market. Real Madrid (squad value: 952 million) won the Champions League for the third time in a row, Manchester City (1.01 billion) won the Premier League championship for the first time under Pep Guardiola and Neymar’s record transfer caused a new era in transfers and transfers market values. As part of the 20th anniversary of market values, Transfermarkt looks back on this season.
For the release clause of 222 million euros, Paris Saint-Germain (794 million) signed Neymar from FC Barcelona (1.02 billion) and shattered the spending record of 105 million euros set by Manchester United in 2016 for Paul Pogba. The Neymar deal resulted in growing transfer fees and increasing market values.
Before the transfer, the Brazilian was the only footballer to break the 100 million mark, along with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who was entering his final season at Real Madrid. After his move, seven other players achieved this feat in 2017/18 – above all Messi and Neymar, who climbed to 180 million euros. PSG also strengthened itself with Kylian Mbappé, for whom a total of 180 million euros was due. Despite all the investments, the Parisians have not yet managed to win the premier class.
Messi was the only remaining Barça professional in the most valuable eleven. Champions League winners Real Madrid provided the most players with Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphaël Varane, Daniel Carvajal and Marcelo. Since Atlético’s Jan Oblak became the most valuable goalkeeper in history with a market value of 70 million euros, he displaced Manuel Neuer, so that only Mats Hummels made it into the selection from the Bundesliga. The total value of the most valuable eleven rose from 765 million in the 2016/17 season to 1.11 billion euros and the most frequently represented nation was the French, who won the World Cup in July 2018.
Salah doubles market value – Barça tries to compensate for Neymar’s departure
Once again, Messi became Europe’s top scorer with 45 goals and 20 assists in 54 appearances. Meanwhile, in England, the focus was on Mohamed Salah, who moved from AS Roma to Liverpool FC (739 million) in 2017 for 42 million euros and reached the final of the premier class with the Reds. The Egyptian was involved in 59 goals in 52 games and doubled his market value to 80 million euros.
After Neymar’s departure, FC Barcelona invested 375 million euros in new players, including 135 million euros each for Philippe Coutinho (in January) and Ousmane Dembélé – but no one was able to follow in Neymar’s footsteps. Behind the Catalans, Manchester City was in second place with 317 million euros – 245 million euros went to defenders Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Danilo and Kyle Walker as well as goalkeeper Ederson. This was followed by Guardiola’s first title win in the Premier League. In the previous season, the clubs in the top five leagues paid 4.21 billion euros for new signings, and in 2017/18 expenditure rose to 5.68 billion euros.
A total of 15 clubs, including FC Bayern (squad value: 789 million), invested over 100 million euros. Meanwhile, the highest income was recorded by BVB (395 million), which received 270 million euros for its departures. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang poured most of the money into Dortmund’s coffers after the lucrative transfer theater surrounding Dembélé – the services of the striker who was keen to change were worth 64 million euros to Arsenal. Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski was the most valuable Bundesliga professional with a market value of 90 million euros, while Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos replaced Munich native Thomas Müller (45 million) as the most valuable German with 80 million euros.
Archive: The most valuable professionals 2016/17
