Following his impressive debut season for Real Madrid, Jude Bellingham has been named the player with the highest estimated transfer value in world football.
The England international made an immediate impact in La Liga after joining Los Blancos for £113 million from Borussia Dortmund last summer, scoring 19 goals and assisting six times.
The 20-year-old scored 35 goals in all competitions for the Spanish giants and will look to add to his tally in his final game for his club this season, Saturday’s Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley Stadium.
According to CIES Football Observatory analysis, the midfielder’s power has more than doubled his transfer value, with an estimated price tag of £236 million (€280 million).
However, Bellingham is one of three Real Madrid players named to the top ten, with Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo also making the top five highest-valued players ahead of their European final.
The 20-year-old’s dazzling Real Madrid debut sees him pip team-mates including Vinicius Junior (pictured left, celebrating his side’s LaLiga victory this season) to the top spot.
Rodrygo (right) is the third Real star to reach the top five ahead of the Champions League final.
The former Birmingham City starlet had previously described the former as ‘the best in the world’, shortly after Vinicius had described Bellingham similarly, joking that if the two thought that about each other, they should’split (the Ballon d’Or) in two’.
Vinicius Junior is third in the rankings, worth an estimated £204.9 million, with Rodrygo coming in fourth at £187.8 million.
However, the Madrid trio is split by a player from Manchester City, another club with a strong presence in the top ten.
Erling Haaland may not have been able to replicate his record-breаking Treble-winning debut season at the Etihad, but he still won Man City’s fourth consecutive Premier League title.
The Norwegian goalscorer also won back-to-back Golden Boots, scoring 27 goals, five more than his nearest rival, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.
As a result, Haaland was named the player with the second-highest transfer value, £217.2 million.
His Manchester City teammate Phil Foden completes the top five, with an estimated value of £173.4 million, just days after being named Premier League Player of the Season and Football Writers Association Player of the Year.
Arsenal standouts. Bukayo Saka (left) and Martin Odegaard (right) were both named on the list.
The first representative from another English club, Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, is worth £166.1 million.
Saka’s teammate Martin Odegaard is also in the top ten, worth an estimated £115.3 million.
While English and Spanish teams are well represented in the top ten, Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz is the first Bundesliga player to appear in the rankings.
After rising to become one of the standouts in the German team’s historic unbeaten domestic season, the academy prоspect is now thought to be worth a staggering £113.8 million.
Wirtz, along with Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala (£102 million) and Paris Saint-Germain loanee Xavi Simons, who has been playing for RB Leipzig (£95 million), is one of only three current Bundesliga players in the top 20.
AC Milan forward Rafael Leao is the most valuable Serie A star – but very low in the rankings.
Of Europe’s top leagues, Serie A and Ligue 1 have even fewer players at the top of the heap, with the highest-valued player in the French top-flight, PSG’s talented teen Warren Zaire-Emery, estimated to be worth £91 million, finishing in 21st place.
Italy’s league performance was even less impressive, with their top prоspect, AC Milan forward Rafael Leao, valued at £85 million, ranking 31st in the world.
Much of the upper half of the standings is dominated by players who play for European clubs, and the highest-valued player outside of those clubs – Palmerias’ Endrick, worth around £78.2 million – is already set to compete in UEFA competition next season.
The highly regarded teen is currently on loan at his former Brazilian club from Real Madrid.