Update in the professional league
Shortly before the start of the Argentinian Liga Profesional, which starts next weekend with the first day of the Copa de la Liga, Transfermarkt.ar has updated the market values. The biggest winner and at the same time the sole most valuable player is Julián Álvarez, a pro who will no longer be part of the CA River Plate squad at the end of the season.
On Deadline Day, the reigning champions officially announced the transfer of the 22-year-old centre-forward to Manchester City after months of negotiations and speculation. The English champions paid €17m for the lively right-footer, whose contract with his training club would have expired at the end of the year, but the clubs agreed to remain in Argentina on loan until the summer.
Álvarez increases its value by 3 million to 23 million euros and thus for the fourth time in a row in exactly one year. The reason for the recent upgrade was not only 42 goals in 46 games across all competitions, but also the interest of many other top European clubs. In addition to the “Citizens”, Real Madrid, the Milan clubs AC and Inter, Juventus Turin, Germany’s BVB, FC Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen as well as Ajax Amsterdam were counted as candidates.
Quintero, Almada & Co.: The most valuable professionals in the professional league
With his new market value, Álvarez leaves Thiago Almada (20), with whom he previously shared the top spot, in a league-wide comparison. While the offensive player from Vélez Sarsfield has stagnated in value since 2020, the soon-to-be Man City pro is also climbing up the rankings of the most valuable Argentines, displacing Giovani Lo Celso (25, Villarreal FC) from 15th place.
On the losing side, one of Álvarez’s team-mates is hit the hardest. Nicolás de la Cruz, 12-time Uruguayan international, loses his 2 million euros as a result of a foot injury at the end of the season – the biggest minus in the league. Nevertheless, the 24-year-old can maintain his status as the third most valuable player in the league with €16 million.
Also down is arch-rivals Boca Juniors’ most valuable player Cristian Pavón. The 26-year-old has had a very inconsistent season and is expected to leave the club on a free transfer in the summer. Due to the minus from 1.5 million to 8.5 million euros, the offensive player remains at the top within the club, but has to accept his lowest value since 2017.
For Javier Pinola, who played 287 competitive games for 1.FC Nürnberg between 2005 and 2015, it’s even the lowest value since 2004 – at that time the defensive specialist began his career at the Racing Club before moving to Europe. At the age of 38, the devaluation from 400,000 to 250,000 euros is purely age-related.
This is how the Transfermarkt market values work
The Transfermarkt market values are created taking into account various pricing models and a strong involvement of the Transfermarkt community, which deals with the values in detailed discussions. The transfer market market values are not to be equated with the transfer fees actually paid.
The goal is not to predict a price, but an expected value. When determining the market value, both individual transfer modalities and situational framework conditions are relevant to a certain extent. Examples of this are listed here. Transfermarkt does not use an algorithm (for detailed market value definition).
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