It has been a hell of a year for Liverpool Football Club, featuring in consecutive Champions League finals — winning one — and setting a club record points total in the Premier League, falling only a single point short of their first league title in nearly three decades.
Although much credit has — rightfully — gone to obviously charismatic and sneakily astute manager Jürgen Klopp, such a year doesn't come about without a team consisting of excellent players. And excellent players are usually worth a lot of money.
That fact is reflected in the Reds' dominance of the CIES Football Observatory list of the 100 most valuable footballers in Europe's top five leagues. The Merseysiders top the list with eleven players, ahead of Manchester City's ten and Barcelona's eight, as well as possessing the most valuable goalkeeper — Alisson, rated at €107m — and defender — Trent Alexander-Arnold, at €130m.
Mohamed Salah sits in second place overall, valued at €220m, bested only by future Ballon d'Or winner Kylian Mbappé. Former Red Philippe Coutinho and rumoured current transfer target Nicolas Pépé also feature, at €129m and €66m, respectively.
There will be quibbles, of course. The list only features players from the top five leagues, meaning burgeoning stars like Matthijs de Ligt and João Félix miss out, and the inclusion of Jordan Pickford in 75th place is dubious at best, but overall, the list does provide a relatively good job of accurately representing the current power dynamics of Europe's top clubs.
So there's another metric for the Reds to chase. Perhaps next season will see them graduate from sporting a full XI to an entire matchday squad, as new players come in and current squad members improve. It may be a big ask, but with the stated ambition immediately after lifting the Champions League trophy being next year's Premier League, may not be entirely out of the question.
CIES transfer value estimates for highest-rated players as of June 12:
Wupelt
65
Those who tell why Messi and Cr7 are not valued much.Because this is not only about pure talent.But age also affects the value of a player.Thats why Mbappe passes everybody and Salah.Tell me a good forward better than Salah except Messi and CR7.
surrenerrus
54
Jordan pickford is dubious at best ? Screw that statement. He is a great goalkeeper who helped England soar high in the world cup and made 5 CLEAN SHEETS in Everton's last seven games. In fact, I would rate him as the top 5 in the league.
Cauenpryz-
39
u bitter as there r no MU players. values are high depending on lots of factors such as age, length of contract. u think Madrid wont pay $252m for Mbappe? they sure will. those values are reasonable in today's market, in my opinion.
Catemop
37
salah and mbappe never will beat Messi in the field but every body knows that Messi is the highest athlete best payed in the world so what is this excuse of salah now the complot still continue against Messi to put down him and we to forget what he did all thus season